Archive for: January 2007

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I’m tipping my mitt a little early, because the intermediate multiplication lessons are not finished yet. But I thought people should have easy access to the basic method for advanced multiplication. This is the tip of the iceberg, but everyone should at least be able to do this method. Anything less than that is either merely standard or substandard.

Here’s the “mystery algorithm” for 26 * 31, or any other set of two-digit numbers. Keep in mind that the description is much longer than the problem should take. After a little practice, it should take no longer than 10 seconds to do a problem like this in your head.

Step 1:
Multiply the digits in the ones columns of both numbers together. That would be the 1 ( of 31) and the 6 (of 26). That gives you 6. That’s the final digit of the product.

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(If you use a little imagination you can guess the title of this article.)

This article concerns M.J. McDermott’s youTube video about the sad state of basic math education in America. You can visit the video here, or you can simply scroll down to the next entry here in the Math Mojo Chronicles, where it is embedded.

It seems like M.J. McDermott has unleashed a firestorm that need to be unleashed. She’s gotten almost 60,000 hits in one week on youTube for a video about math! Imagine that! Good work, M.J.!

I’ve commented on that video several times, mentioning that there is at least one much better algorithm than what is called the “standard.”

Not one of the hundreds of other people who commented on the video seems to be aware of this, which is strange, because most of the comments to M.J.s video were posted by obviously thoughtful people. And one man who is obviously a lot better at mathematics than I am even made a video-reply to M.J.s video - but still stuck in standard mode.

Here is a synopsis of my part of the discussion so far:

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First a tip of the hat to thethinkingmother blog, an interesting homeschool blog, where I found out about the video that is the subject of this post.

The title of this post is a little strong, but I want to make an important point.

No, I’m not going to rag on Al Gore.

This post is about an interesting and provocative post on youTube, by M.J. McDermott. Ms. McDermott is a meteorologist on a Seattle news station, and she is concerned about the miserable state of math education in this country.

She has done a very nice exposé of some mindless math books and programs that have wormed their way into many school systems.
When you watch the video (I’ve linked to it here) you may be tempted to agree with just about everything, and become “incensed” at the state of affairs.

Me, too.

But it is all too easy to shake our little fists in the air and want to “get back to the good old ways” of doing things. The good old way in this case is what Ms. McDermott calls “The Standard Algorithm.” And there lies the rub.

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… a kiss is but a kiss. But on the other hand, a number can be many things. And there are many ways to remember numbers.

In lesson 3 of “Eating Math For Breakfast” you’ll learn a very basic but effective way to memorize a string of digits in order to do more math mentally.

Eventually Math Mojo will incorporate more mnemonic (memory) techniques into the website, but for now, this method will do. Mnemonics is a very powerful tool for magicians and is vastly underutilized in our education system.

In case you didn’t know, Math Mojo is part of Magic and Learning, a company that uses methods of magicians to teach thinking skills.

Today I have to start working on the “Math Mojo Monthly - Comes out quartly mostly” newsletter, to let subscribers know that the Chronicles have been reincarnated, and that these “Eating Math for Breakfast” lessons are available. .

I hope you have been trying out the lessons. They will become more fun to do in the near future, as I am adding a weirdness-factor to them as we go along.

(What the heck could that mean?)

What makes us human? Opposable thumbs, memory? I think it’s the ability to determine to change, change, and be aware of the change.

Willingness to change is more important than the material, often.
It must be a big change.

I came up with the Idea of making an easily useable, understandable podcast that anyone from third-grade-level on should be able to understand, that will help them get better at basic math, so they can “eat it for breakfast.” There will be one lesson for each weekday.

These are very simple lessons, but it’s important to remember that simple does not mean easy. You will have to actively learn, and do the simple exercises in the lessons.

This first series of podcast lessons is meant to be the next step of learning how to turbo-charge your basic multiplication skills once you already know how to multiply one-digit numbers (like 6 x 7) using mental- and speed-math.

The first step is to make sure you know those one-digit multiplications “in your bones.” I feel the best way to lear them is with “Numbers Juggling - Times Without the Tables.”

These lessons are perfect for anyone who wants to learn how to multiply large numbers, like 7,693, times one-digit numbers, like 8, in their head, without pencil, paper, or heaven forbid, a calculator.

The lessons are free (for the time being) and you can find out more about them by clicking on the link on the left, entitled “Eating Math for Breakfast - Info., or you can click here.

I spent about 20 hours yesterday learning about how to blog with Wordpress. I had previously been on Blogger, but was unhappy with some of the features (or lack of them).

A lot of that time was spent reformatting old posts from the previous Blogger blog to make it readable on this blog. Now it’s done, and it was a pleasure to learn so much. I figure I understand enough to start posting some serious math lessons by tomorrow.

Here’s the current fantasy:

Each day put up another lesson on basic multiplication. It might be in web (html) formatting, print formatting (PDF), an audio file, or some combination of any of them.

The preferable form would be a podcast. I thought a lot of MathMojo readers would like to learn advanced ways to do basic operations, and it would be any easy way to teach and learn to have a five to ten minute audio lesson each morning that you could listen to while you have breakfast, or do some morning ritual.

I have some more detailed thoughts about this, and will post them by tomorrow. Immediately after that, I should have the first lesson up.

If you have any thoughts about which format you think would be most effective, let me know. This project is just starting, and I will appreciate any feedback I can get.

Spoly-oly!

Foley

Math Mojo and the Chronicles have gone through many changes. There is so much more content, lessons, thoughts, tips, stories, etc. that are waiting to go up on the site and this blog, but I have never found a good system for doing it.

Yesterday, after nothing but trouble with the “advanced” features of Blogger, I finally bit the bullet and decided to give WordPress a whirl. What a difference! It’s been a piece of cake! I hope to make some changes to the look and feel of the pages, but as far as the actual mechanics of putting up posts and organizing the details, it has been a dream.

What does this mean to you? It means that I will be able to post some really useful stuff to learn basic and useful math with very soon.

Hotcha!

You are in for a treat. Terry Jones, of Monty Python’s fame, has a made a wonderful “documentary” about the number 1 for the BBC. It is a brilliant history of numbers.

I just saw it on PBS, and it is fantastic. A child can follow most of the show, but most of all, the child will be enchanted by the way things are presented. There is no talking down, and no talking over our heads.

I just got up and out of bed to write about it right away, so I don’t have all the details for you (I only just caught the program near the end.) I will try to write more later.

But a video is worth 1,000 words (in binary), so you can view the show right now, for free at on google video (if you have a fast connection) here.

Besides the gentle yet inspiring presentation by Mr. Jones, the direction, camera, scenery, costumes and presentation by mathematician Marcus du Sautoy are all wonderfully engaging. But by far the “coolest” thing about the production part of the show is the animation. Very understated, and very clever. There are plenty of double entendres in animation, so keep your eyes open. The quirkiness of the title didn’t escape me, either. Does it escape you? This is a perfect program for every family to watch together.

I guarantee that every member of the family from age seven on up will find something valuable.
If you want an excellent introduction to the history and meaning of numbers, this is for you. If you are a teacher, you owe it to your class to show this to them. You can purchase the DVD or video from PBS. Or you can access it for free at the above link.

Thank you, Terry Jones!