From: Mermaid . (britannica@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Jan 07 2002 - 22:52:00 MST
[Kalkor]The impressive thing about memorizing PI is that there do not appear
to be any patterns.
[Mermaid]My personal belief and strong suspicion is that there are patterns
everywhere. It is the nature of things to find order even in the midst of
utter chaos. Of course, this is merely my instinct. Has anyone ever checked
the value of Pi for recurring mathematical patterns?
[Mermaid]Memorising Pi upto 32 digits could have been play or a memory aid.
I dont know about the origin of that prayer stanza nor do I know the year of
its origin. The Ganita sutras which require one to memorise the 16 stanzas
so that they can be applied to any set of large numbers for basic numerical
calculations<multiplication, division, squares, cubes> is more interesting
to me. It seems close to the Trachtenberg system of speed mathematics.
[Mermaid]You quoted something Bill Roh mentioned. No memorising numbers is
not fun, I agree...but the employment of memory aids is a useful technique.
The principle itself can be a valuble educational aid for students. Consider
this...the first concept of mathematics that we all learn are the
mathematical tables. How many of us really understand the nature of numbers
when we are first introduced to them? I distinctly remember learning my
mathematical tables...narrating and repeating them uptil the point of
nausea. Nothing tickled my fancy until they bought me to the 9th table.
Remember? 9x1=9. 9x2=18. 9x3=27 and so on. Then one bright, sunny day, our
teacher told us about the magic of 9. the last position keeps decreasing and
the first position keeps increasing as we progress with the table. 9, 18,
27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81, 90, 99, 108, 117 and so on...Its simple and
every child after the first year of mathematical instruction knows this
pattern. But easily and interestingly, the 9 table transformed from stale,
dry recitation to pure mathematical magic! One will never forget the 9s
after that 'little trick'. How many more like this do you know?
[Mermaid]Do a search on yahoo for 'mathematics' + 'tricks' and see how many
people have come up with creative and interesting ideas to learn
mathematics. We have an in-house magician here at CoV. I bet he has a couple
of mathematical tricks up his sleeve. Memory aids for mathematics is a
wonderful thing. It will lay good and strong foundation for kids. It will
make learning interesting and fun...and lard knows..we need to get more kids
to enjoy learning.
random link: http://research.microsoft.com/crypto/compnum.asp
http://www.jimloy.com/arith/trachten.htm <Trachtenberg's system of
speed-math>
go!! try a search ... mathematics + tricks. I know I'm having a blast
here...
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