Lost on the street

this was her comment to my post “Knocking on the wrong door ” :

Notunma :

“Thought about why this would work – and concluded that it would work for 13, 14, 15 etc.. by the same principle. ( except that you have to multiple by 3, 4, 5 etc instead of doubling.. I think it will become more complex once the result of the multiplication becomes > 2 digits, because it has to be accounted for two places to its left.”

I think I found the perfect cell mate for Mr.Trachtenberg

P.S.- Any equally mathematically inclined person please feel free to verify the above hypothethis

~nm tagged me on this where I have to continue the story that has been building up in not more than 55 words

My first tag ever! whopeee.I would this is like the blogdom equivalent of “you have arrived”.But of course things dont happen easy to me and ~nm had to do a difficult tag,where you have to think instead of the usual “10 favourite colours/actors/places list”. Okay you have to promise me to tag me those also.

What happened so far.

“She wondered if she could ever count each of the twinkling stars in the night sky. The clock in the tower struck 9. She had to get back to reading her text book, ignoring the weird grumbling noises her stomach was making. The flickering orange street light looked like it would go put any minute.” [galadriel]

she considered her options. she cud complete reading before the light died on her. or she cud eat. or of course, she could attempt to count the stars. it was in the midst of this contemplation that her phone buzzed. books aside, hunger aside… she now focussed on the screen. should she answer… she wondered. [rayshma]

She decided to let it ring.. must be her mother calling to find out if she was alright. She was really tired of her mom checking on her four times every day! And then she heard it, a blood curdling scream filled the air. There were sounds of running feet ,followed by another shrill scream! [preethi]

She stood up to see where the sound had come from. It was a bratty toddler throwing a tantrum. The phone was still ringing shrilly. She picked it up. It was not her mother. “Hello”, said a voice from the other end. “Did you get my e-mail?” “Yes” she laughed. “I just finished reading it.” [DotThoughts]

“So?” her sister asked. “So what?” She replied giggling to herself. Her sister replied back annoyingly “You know what I’m talking about! So don’t pretend and be a tease.” “OK OK!” She laughed. “I think he’s nice. But you have met him personally so you will know better.” “Thank God!” her sister sighed with relief! [~nm]

Now to pass on the tag, I give it to “Lost on the street” to take the story further!

My bit :

Relieved that atleast she bothered to scan through the profile , instead of summarily dismissing them. It was a determined effort of the elder sister to see the younger one in bridal finery. She would airily dismiss the younger one’s concerns about the reality of marital bliss. Wasn’t her own perfect wedded life enough proof?

And now I push this to ,who else but, notunma

Take it on!!!

To all those who landed on this blog via searching for “metric tables”, “ratios,fractions and conversions”, and “metric percentages” , I hope/assume you managed to beat a hasty retreat.All I ever did was bitch about mathematics.I donot recollect teaching maths to anyone.

But as the Lord said -Let Nobody go away empty handed from thy home (Psalm 34.3.4 Book Of David).

So in adherence to the Lord’s sayings here are a few tips (one useless tip rather) for some quick mental math.

A friend of mine (a btech from iit no less) , quite exasperated with my whining, gave me a book which teaches

Trachtenberg’s system of speed maths.

So one thing I learnt there is how to multiply any hugggge number by 12.

************************start of tip****************************

to multiply by 12
Starting from the rightmost digit, double each digit and add the neighbor. (By neighbour we mean the digit on the right.)

This gives one digit of the result. If the answer is greater than 1 digit simply carry over the 1 or 2 to the next operation. Example: 316 × 12 = 3,792:
In this example:

• the last digit 6 has no neighbor.
• the 6 is neighbor to the 1.
• the 1 is neighbor to the 3.
• the 3 is neighbor to the second prepended zero.
• the second prepended zero is neighbor to the first.

*************************end of tip****************************************

Heady tips right? Now I just have to find that real life situation where there is a huge crowd and I am being asked to multiply 249894790874 by 12.Hooray!!

But the real ego dampener came when I was showing off my new skills to Sid.He pretended to be impressed with the first one,but inevitably I got the second one wrong and before Icould even put the pen down,he pointed out the mistake.Damn he was doing it in his head and it was a pretty long number I swear.What? Why? When? Is it only me totally lacking in this or there are others ?.Please let me know I have company.

P.S.- Apparently this Trachtenberg chap was a POW during the WW II, and while in the Nazi Concentration camp he came up with this system to -this is the best part- keep himself sane.

Really whatever happened to good ol porn.I pity his cell mate.