I found a link to this book on http://del.icio.us
http://hilomath.com/inneralgebra/html/

It's a book that teaches you how to do algebra in your head. If you have links to similar thinks (new approaches to math, new ways of thinking about it) please share.

I find mathematics to be particularly daunting, even though I need to use it in what I do.

Cool.
I have never prefered working with numbers. I can do it, but do not find it interesting or stimulating in any way.

Maybe I should take a closer look at this text, and perhaps run through new history a few times too

Thanks Babayada.

Interesting. I think I'll give it a try.

Vedic math is also a system for making calculations in your head. Do a Google search, and you'll find lots of sites.

Vedic math? Sounds interesting. Thanks.

Most people don't realize that anyone can learn to multiply three digit numbers in their head, with just a little bit of practice.
The key is learning to multiply from left to right instead of right to left (as everyone is taught in grammar school).
I have a couple of books on the subject but am not aware of any e-resources -- I will look around and see what I can find.

In the meantime, here's a funny math riddle:

An alien comes to visit the earth in a tiny spaceship. He wants to learn as much as possible about earth culture, so naturally he asks the Earth inhabitants for all the resources they can give him on Earth's culture, history, beliefs and traditions, etc.
After reading several volumes of encyclopedias, classic books, religious texts, and so on, he decides to record all this information so he can take it back with him and share with his home planet.
To do so, he talkes out a silver rod, and makes one tiny notch on it with a marking instrument.

The "Earthlings" are perplexed. How can one tiny notch on a rod encode all of that information?

[This message has been edited by garics (edited January 24, 2006).]

Garics-
???
I have no idea- how can one tiny notch on a rod record all of that information?

(all I can think of is the old old analoque gramaphones)

vitaman

Here's how our alien friend did it:

Everyone is familiar with how an alphabet (any alphabet, but take the English alphabet for example) can be encoded into a number system -- each letter and punctuation mark of the alphabet simply has a one-or-two digit representation as a number (i.e. the English alphabet and the base-10 number system.)

Now imagine reproducing all of the data in those volumes of encyclopedias and other books in this decimal format. You would basically have a number with hundreds of thousands of digits, which could be decoded into English or whatever alphabet.

Now all the alien did, was put a (small)notch on the rod, such that the ratio of the smaller side to the longer side, expressed as a decimal, is equal to this number with hundreds of thousands of digits!

Not technically feasible, of course, but its a pretty funny and interesting idea.

I read this in a book some years ago; I believe it was by William Poundstone and was subtitled "Paradox, Puzzles, and the Frailty of Knowledge". (I don't remember the main title.)

Cheers

Garic

Very interesting.

The people who found a way to break the encryption on DVDs did a similar thing.

They sold t-shirts with a long number on it. This number was an encoded form of the source code of the program needed to decrypt DVD encryption.

If you entered the number in and used certain rules to parse and convert it, you'd end up with the program. If taken to court over it, they'd contest that the prosecutors were trying to make a number illegal, which is an absurd notion.

EDIT:

BTW, I recently purchased that book! Look forward to reading it.

Also, this sort of thing is an EXCELLENT way to teach reframing. The conception before and after are completely different, and after the explanation, it is impossible to think about the notch on the rod the way you did before you had the answer.

[This message has been edited by babayada (edited January 26, 2006).]