Ideas as how to improve your mental math?

[Holocene]

Has anyone felt as though they've no problem with fairly advanced mathematics on paper, but is horrible with even arithmetic in their heads?

If so, does anyone have any ideas as how to improve your mental math?

 

[ice109]

it's muscle memory like anything else. one has to "remember" that 2+4=6 that 16-9=7. do it more often and you'll become faster.

 

[Gib Z]

I remember arithmetic that I intentially practice, like some square roots and things, but i have a few seconds lag when you give me something like 7 * 6 =]

 

[CoKe-THEoRY]

I would perception is key. I think you can increase the speed of your computation through of practice and also perception.if you can form your own links with on numbers relate ,i think you can optimize your processor.lol

 

[ice109]

I would perception is key. I think you can increase the speed of your computation through of practice and also perception.if you can form your own links with on numbers relate ,i think you can optimize your processor.lol

lol i think that's pretty vague lol lol

 

[fedaykin]

There are tricks to use of course. You can break the problem up into easier parts. Ex:
347 + 982 = (300+900) + (40+80) + (7+9) = 1,200 + 120 + 9 = 1,329

Most of it is practice, I think. If you want to get a lot better at it, do worksheets again and again (different each time) until you stop making many mistakes.

 

[LukeD]

lol i think that's pretty vague lol lol

It is though; different people do better with different kinds of connections.

For instance, the way that I initially remembered the definition of sine and cosine was not the SOHCAHTOA thing that most American students get, but instead I would envision a person traveling at speed 1 with angle \theta in the x-y plane (with \theta measured counter-clockwise from the x-axis as is the usual convention)

Then \cos(\theta) gives the speed along the x-axis
and \sin(\theta) gives the speed along the y-axis

And this is how I remembered the above 2 facts:
To me, the word cosine and the idea of the x-axis seemed masculine
While the word sine and the idea of the y-axis seemed feminine






Yeah, makes sense, right? I doubt that there is a person in the world who understand how that makes sense (it doesn't to me either)

Some people associate numbers with feelings, some people with pictures, some with colors. Some times people just memorize facts until they can recall them.

Whatever works for a person is what works.

 

[LukeD]

As far as the topic at hand: I'm absolutely terrible with numbers. I usually tell people that I'm a Math Major because I hate doing calculations. I was once in front of a class working out a problem about probability saying "oh no... I counted 12 terms before, but now I have 4*3=16 terms... did I make a mistake somewhere?" It was a good 30 seconds or so before someone pointed out to me that 4*3=12

 

[CoKe-THEoRY]

LOL, beautiful Luke.

 

[CoKe-THEoRY]

i know most people ,,know about pemdas order of operations.if its possible some mathmatician should develop an order like pemdas for all mathematics, so people who can remember catchy words and phrases can develop better math skills.its just why we have brakets in our phone number for ex.1-800-XXX-XXXX.we have bcuZ WE CAN COMPACT INFORMATION AND CONTAIN MORE .THINK ABOUT IT MY FRIENDS THIS CAN MABE CHANGE MATHEMATICS.LOL

 

[maze]

i know most people ,,know about pemdas order of operations.if its possible some mathmatician should develop an order like pemdas for all mathematics, so people who can remember catchy words and phrases can develop better math skills.its just why we have brakets in our phone number for ex.1-800-XXX-XXXX.we have bcuZ WE CAN COMPACT INFORMATION AND CONTAIN MORE .THINK ABOUT IT MY FRIENDS THIS CAN MABE CHANGE MATHEMATICS.LOL

For.The.Win.

Epic.

 

[uman]

If this guy isn't trolling, I'll commit ritual Japanese suicide.

 

[Daniel Y.]

For instance, the way that I initially remembered the definition of sine and cosine was not the SOHCAHTOA thing that most American students get, but instead I would envision a person traveling at speed 1 with angle \theta in the x-y plane (with \theta measured counter-clockwise from the x-axis as is the usual convention)

That, really helped. To remember the trig identities and other jazz I always have to draw a makeshift unit circle on my paper and scribble the x, y, and r sides of the triangle it forms and...yeah. Pain in the butt.

It's a big relief to know I'm not the only one who has trouble with arithmetic. My trick for things like 17 +or- 9 is to round the closest number to 10, take it away/add 10, and add/subtract 1. If all else fails, I use my fingers and toes.

 

[sihag]

this topic has so much of that feel good factor i needed ! : )

 

[Diffy]

That, really helped. To remember the trig identities and other jazz I always have to draw a makeshift unit circle on my paper and scribble the x, y, and r sides of the triangle it forms and...yeah. Pain in the butt.

It's a big relief to know I'm not the only one who has trouble with arithmetic. My trick for things like 17 +or- 9 is to round the closest number to 10, take it away/add 10, and add/subtract 1. If all else fails, I use my fingers and toes.

You obviously never took a history course or you would know about the Egyptian King Soh Cah Toa. He of course invented the trig functions,

King
Sine Opposite (over) Hypotenuse
Cosine Adjacent (over) Hypotenuse
Tangent Opposite (over) Adjacent

 

[LukeD]

You obviously never took a history course or you would know about the Egyptian King Soh Cah Toa. He of course invented the trig functions,

King
Sine Opposite (over) Hypotenuse
Cosine Adjacent (over) Hypotenuse
Tangent Opposite (over) Adjacent

Ah, but the point of this thread is that not everyone learns best by memorizing mnemonics. Sure, they help a lot of people, and I occasionally find myself using that one (if the triangle is rotated all weird, the way I learned sine and cosine can be a little clumsy), but trying to teach with only mnemonics only helps some people.

 

[Diffy]

True, I actually prefer the unit circle myself, but I was trying to be a wise guy :-)