| Let's face it. Math is not everyone's favorite subject. | | | | more than one way to skin a cat". Why you would |
| Most people would rather use a calculater to figure | | | | want to skin a cat or even have more than way to |
| out how much something costs with tax or they | | | | do it is beyond me but I digress. What that phrase |
| depend on the cashier and the cash register to | | | | means is that there's more than one way to solve a |
| determine how much chage they should get back. I'm | | | | problem and math is no different. However for my |
| not one of those people. | | | | examples I'm going to show what in my opinion is |
| For as long as I can remember I have always been | | | | the easiest method. |
| playing with numbers in my head. Now I don't have a | | | | Let's do another one but this time with three digits: |
| doctorate in math or nuclear engineering or anything | | | | 267 + 148 |
| like that. I'm just your average guy who happens to | | | | Now don't panic! For this one we'll use my divide and |
| like math and playing with numbers in his head. If I'm | | | | conquer method. This means that we'll break one of |
| watching something on TV or listening to the radio | | | | the numbers down into multiples of 10 so we'll have |
| and someone mentions a date that something was | | | | some zeros on the end and this will make adding a |
| created, I immediately do the calculation in my head | | | | whole lot easier. Let's pick the second number, 148. |
| to figure out how many years that is. I'm probably | | | | So now we have: |
| not the only person who's like that but I'm guessing | | | | 267 + 100 + 40 + 8 |
| that there aren't many of us. | | | | See how easier it becomes now? Adding 267 and |
| Let's begin with a small example: | | | | 100 is easy. |
| 93 + 48 | | | | 267 + 100 = 367 |
| Believe it or not this is really simple. The trick is to | | | | To add 367 and 40, change 367 to a multiple of 10 |
| round one or both of the numbers up(or down) to a | | | | by subtracting 7 and making it 360. Remember it's a |
| multiple of 10. This is because it's easier to add | | | | lot easier to add numbers that end with a zero. |
| numbers that have a zero on the end. So going back | | | | So now we have: |
| to our example here the easiest solution is to add 7 | | | | 360 + 40 + 8 = 408 |
| to 93 to make it 100. | | | | Now going back to "My Little Rule" at the top, we |
| Our problem now becomes: | | | | subtracted 7 at the beginning so we must add it |
| 100 + 48 = 148 | | | | back. |
| Now this is not the final answer. I have what I like to | | | | 408 + 7 = 415 |
| call "My Little Rule". Basically it states that whatever | | | | This might look like a lot of steps to do but when |
| you do at the beginnig, you must do the opposite at | | | | you practice doing it in your mind it's really fast after |
| the end and with the same amount. In this case | | | | you get the hang of it. There are a lot more |
| what we did at the beginning was add 7 in order to | | | | examples I can do here but that would make for an |
| make the addition easier. We must therefore | | | | article the size of a book so I think I'll stop here for |
| subtract that same amount from the result above to | | | | now. Hopefully you get the basic idea. I'll be writing |
| get the answer. | | | | more articles about doing math problems in your head |
| 148 - 7 = 141 | | | | so watch for them. You can also find more on my |
| Now you've probably heard of the phrase "There's | | | | web site. See you next time. |