Vedic math

[Chinasaur]

As seen on wired - http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,64575,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1

http://www.vedicmaths.org/Group%20Files/tutorial/tutorial.asp

Being a math reject, even this would not have helped me... but it is interesting :D

[Nexus]

Those methods are useful, but they're hardly ground-breaking stuff. The section on adding fractions is stuff taught in primary school. The 'dividing by 9' section was new to me though.

[Chinasaur]

Maybe not groundbreaking in Australia..but I was educated in the 60's and 70's, and it was all long hand, long method, prove your work, by teachers who made you do it "the right way", as anything else was a cheat.

I would have killed for shortcuts like this :confused:

[Nexus]

That's a shame. While proofs are important, there's no point in emphasizing correctness to such an extent that you can't actually get anything done. Too many people get turned off from maths because it's presented to them as a bewildering, tedious ordeal, and it doesn't have to be. There's a lot of beauty and elegance in the world of mathematics but if your teachers are smothering you with book-keeping and technicalities you won't get to appreciate it. And the funny thing is, professional mathematicians are the laziest people on earth and will use any shortcut they can get their grubby nubbies on.