Rohit’s Ramblings

Archive for the ‘Mathematics’ Category

Hi Friends!

As promised, I am placing the slides & notebooks for the Mathematica session here. I have also composed a couple of limericks to go with it :).

It was an attempt to make Mathematics seem more groovy,
And also to make the students Mathematica savvy,
But when the concepts got too deep,
And a couple of students fell asleep,
I thought I shouldn’t have made it so heavy.

I feel that its important to see beyond your scope,
Even if initially it seems difficult to cope,
I admit the content was a little bit dense,
And needed much effort to make sense.
But without raising your engine, you can never climb the slope.

That being said, I would still appreciate any feedback you may have to contribute. Please leave a comment below.

Click here to download the slides & notebooks.

Although the Indian learning system places emphasis on memorizing multiplication tables (my grandfather supposedly knew multiplication tables till 40×12 by heart) – kids should also be given a contingency plan to fall back on – in case their memory fails them.

This method helps to quickly calculate the product of two numbers, each of which is between 6 and 10 using only your hands and knowledge of smaller products such as 2×3.

1. First we have to number the fingers on our hands as follows –
   
2. Now let’s take an example – say 8 x 7 = 56. Make the “8” finger on one hand touch the “7” finger on the other hand
   
3. Digits in the tens place - Count the fingers below (and including) the “7” and “8” fingers. In this case there are total 5 fingers.
   
4. Digits in the units place – Multiply the fingers above the “7” and “8” fingers. In this case 3×2 = 6.
   

There you have it – 7 x 8 = 56!