Real Life Math

This is a new section that deals with real life math, or how math is used in the real world.  I remember numerous occasions as a kid when I heard others complain, “We will never use this kind of math after school!”

Well, many of us are out of school, and many of us use math in our jobs!  So I will write about real life math in this section, and I invite others to post about how they use math in their every-day lives.  I look forward to hearing from you!

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Last time, I introduced to you the concept of using mnemonics as a memory technique to remember numbers.  I told you that you can code the number “9” as either a “b” or a “p”.

In this memory technique, none of the vowels are used, so you can use any vowel you wish in order to create words and phrases that will aid you to remember numbers.

For instance, if you need to remember the number 9999, you could code it as “bbbb” or “pppp”, or any 4-string combination of b’s or p’s.  You could do this, but it would not be very effective as a memory trick for remembering numbers.  Instead, you should code it as something like “Boo Boo Bob”.  So to decode this easy to remember phrase, you just extract the consonants and translate them back into their numbers.

The above example is a simple case, and in the real world, you will need the entire code to make this technique work effectively.  In this post, I will give you the code that we will be using, and in subsequent posts, I will explain the code in detail, and give you some ways of easily remembering the code – so please do not let it scare you off!  The code really is very easy to remember once I tell you how:

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Tags: Math Tricks, memorization techniques, memorize numbers, memory technique, memory tricks, remember dates, Remember Numbers

Remember Numbers

Today, the day of this writing, is September 9^th, 2009 – a perfect day in my opinion to introduce mnemonics as a way to remember numbers both large and small.

As math tricks go, this one has many uses.  You can use it to remember phone numbers, remember combination lock numbers, remember dates in history, etcetera.  If you are married, then you really should learn this technique because you will learn how to remember anniversary dates!

Getting back to today’s date in mnemonics.  September 9^th, 2009 can be expressed as “bob up”.  This is code for “999”; the code is simple – the number “9” can be expressed as either “p” or “b”.  In the system that will be taught to you, you will learn the entire code for the numbers 0 – 9, and you will be surprised at how easy it is to remember the code.  So, count your blessings and stay tuned to this thread of math tricks posts!

If you want more in-depth information on this memory technique and other math tricks, then I recommend the book “Secrets of Mental Math”.

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Tags: Math Tricks, memorization techniques, memorize numbers, memory technique, memory trick, memory tricks, remember dates, Remember Numbers

When you learned how to do math in school, you probably learned how to do it from right to left.  One of the secrets to doing fast math tricks in your head is to learn how to solve mathematical problems from left to right.

Actually, learning this math tricks method is not very difficult.  In fact, your brain is already hard-wired for solving math problems from left to right; you have spent years reading left to right, correct?  Well, then your brain is trained to think from left to right – so lets try it with some simple addition problems!

Addition Example 1

45 + 38

This is a very easy problem, and it is even easier if you solve it from left to right.  First, break down the number 38 into it’s tens and ones:

30 + 8

Now add the numbers in this fashion:

45 + 30
75 + 8 = 83

So the full breakdown of the problem looks like this:

45 + 38 =
45 + (30 + 8)

Once you have the problem in this format, it is much easier to solve.

Addition Example 2

384 + 467

Once again, to solve this problem, break it down into more manageable parts, and then solve:

384 + (400 + 60 + 7)

= 784 + (60 + 7)

= 844 + 7

= 851

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Tags: addition mathematics, Addition Tricks, fast addition, fast sums, Math Tricks