My daughter is in the middle of her final examinations of class 8. She has a trait quite opposite to me. She just hates Maths
while I have always loved Mathematics. I have my reasons o love Maths and I have never really managed to understand why a large number of kids hate it. May be there is something wrong in the way Mathematics is being taught.
I have tried to encourage her to develop the ability to do
simple mental Maths with very little success in the past. She was in a relaxed
mood this evening and I asked her, “Do you know the Algebra equation (a + b)2
?”.
She said, “Oh yeah. I don’t know why we have to learn that kind of
nonsense. It is some a2 + b2 + 2ab. What is the use of
our suffering all these a, b, c and x, y, z ?”
I asked her “Can you tell me the whole square of 55 ? And
without using a pen and paper ?” Her face went down. I said, “It is 3025”. She countered
me with, “But you have known that before…”
I said, “No, you give me any number
and I can give you the whole square of that using the equation, (a + b)2
= a2 + 2ab + b2. You just need to listen to me and I bet
you’ll enjoy it in the end”
So she came with a paper and and a pen I showed her how to derive the
whole square of 59; step by step and then to do it in the mind.
Step-1: 59 is 50 + 9 (a + B)
Step-2: Applying the Equation, we have 502 = 2500
and 2a = 100 ready for all numbers from 50.
Step-3: So what do we have ? 2500 + 100b+ b2
[That means 2500 + Hundred times the second number + the square of second
number]
Step-4: That is 2500 + 900 + 81 = 3481
Since we know the round figures of 50 square and small
squares well, all four steps get condensed into just one step in our mind and
we have the answer in double quick time compared to the cumbersome method of
doing the multiplication of 59 X 59.
Similarly, for numbers below 50, we can apply the (a - b)2
= a2 – 2ab + b2 equation.
Thus 44 (50 – 6) square can be calculated in no time with
2500 – 600 + 36 = 1936
We can use this method to calculate whole square of big numbers by just remembering the round figures and then the 'dreaded equation' ! It isn't necessary to be an Abacus product to know Mathematics.
Once she came to terms with this, there was a BIG smile on
her face and she asked me, “Why don’t they teach us these things at school ? I
LOVE this Maths. Why don’t you take some Maths classes in our school, Appe ?"
 |
| Maths: As easy as that ! |
It wasn’t any big deal teaching a class 8 student, something she already
should be knowing. But for someone who was carrying the burden of not being
able to break the mental barrier she had created around her, this was a BIG
break through. I know I have managed to
breach her fortress. My day was made !
Dr. Punned-it
But I still hate Maths! you did your MBBS and hence you never came across Laplace transformation and all the crap! An engineer learns more maths than an MSc Maths PG .
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have any less Maths in Medical college. Chemistry [Human Biochemistry] had enormous maths and Community Medicine had so much of statistics and logs and squaring that, we never missed Maths classes !
ReplyDelete