Last night this typist gasped. At math.
No kidding. I laughed too. And clapped. And marveled. And jumped to my feet. At math. MATH!And you would have gasped, laughed, clapped and marveled too, if you’d witnessed someone work this out in their head:
57,682 x 57,682 =
It took him about 20 seconds to come up with the correct answer of 3, 327, 213, 124 before a live audience of mathematicians at the university lecture I attended. The audience gave him the numbers to work with and he used his mental math skills and tricks to come up with the answer.
He calls his art Mathemagics.
If you give him the date, month and year of your birthday, he can tell you the day you were born. Even if you were born in 1805.
He can do 11x 14 in a snap because of the magic properties in the 11-times table. ( You add 1+4 = 5 and put the 5 in the middle of the 1 and 4 for an answer of 154.) For bigger numbers you have to carry the one so that 85 x 11 = 8 + 5 = 13. Carry the one makes the answer 935.
He does his mental math calculations left to right.
He uses the magic of the nine-times tables to perform other feats. He also uses phonetic codes to memorize pi (∏) to 60 figures.
Dr. Benjamin says the biggest problem with math is the way it’s taught. Math teachers beat the joy out of math starting in elementary school. They make it more complicated and less fun than it really is.
When kids begin to stumble on math, society quickly gives them the out. ” I guess you aren’t that good at math.” This is wrong, he says. Everyone can do math. Math is a skill like reading or driving a car. And if you practice you can do it.
Where I live, math is a huge problem and the government is so blind to the problem that they put a positive spin on test results showing that 30% of Grade 3 students are failing at math. This, according to our government, is good.
Dumb, I say. And Dr. Benjamin would say so too.
Dr. Benjamin’s gift for entertainment and fun is what math and kids need most.
