How Can We Improve Multiplication Skills?

[wScott]

I've been looking on this forum but I haven't been able to find it.
There was once a post with a link that brought me to a site where it showed you how to easily multiply two digit numbers together,and as well as things like 123 x 78. Does anybody know of a site that does this?

I think it was something like 'sixteen principles of mathematics' or of such.

 

[3trQN]

Not sure, but i have a good book called Speed Mathematics: Secrets of Lightning Mental Calculation

It has some interesting techniques and some interesting insights into elementary maths calculations, the amazon link has the look inside feature you can maybe get a few pages out of it :)

 

[wScott]

Thanks for the book,I just requested it from the public library.

 

[3trQN]

It an ok book, but its hard to kick the habbits of a lifetime when it comes to doing this kind of thing i find, wish i had noticed this kind of method 20 years ago :P

 

[Flake]

http://www.vedicmaths.org/Introduction/Tutorial/Tutorial.asp

Vedic maths was my first thought, and searching this forum for that brought that link from this thread.
If that's not it and you have a memory of what color background I'll find it.

 

[wScott]

Flake, that is EXACTLY the same site I had found before. Thanks a lot.

 

[Universe_Man]

Wow, Mental Calculation... I absolutely suck at it.. I have to write things down if I want to calculate it...

 

[3trQN]

Yeah i am much less prone to errors when doing it in written form, its very dependent on how many digits you can manipulate at a time in short term memory i understand. It can be trained but is generally much better when done from an early age.

Its actually funny that i can manipulate larger numbers faster if I imagine a white-board marker in my mind and perform the sum visually on the imaginary board.

Other good techniques which I've heard help are imagining unique colours to variables, a lot like C++ Keyword/syntax highlighting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-term_memory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_capacity