Course Introduction

The primary goal for this program is to motivate. Many of us who have gone through classes and various academes no doubt have developed an “inferiority complex”, so to speak, when it comes to mathematics. We feel we simply couldn’t excel at math. We just didn’t think we could engage in any fun math. And when do, we avoid the topic altogether, or water down its aspects to make it easy for us to digest.

This course, however, does not promise to make each student an instant genius. Those who practice the math strategies contained in these work courses will look at math and all other courses of study in a more enjoyable and confident light. No doubt, a healthier outlook, self-concept, and attitude towards numbers and higher math will be developed as you go through with these courses.

Naturally, you will have to invest a lot of time, effort, and personal energies to work out and apply these math strategies. The beneficial rewards for understanding the material presented will be huge. Among these are:

• you will experience a great deal of success with math and working with numbers;
• you will realize that through your own efforts, success has been achieved;
• you will be able to recall basic fact faster and more accurately;
• gaining the ability to calculate numbers in your head more quickly;
• having the skill to handle reasonably-sized numbers into more mentally-manageable forms; and
• realizing that you are already a tad more successful than what you were able to do with math several years back.

One topic that cannot be replaced by a calculator is the development and understanding of what numbers are.

Can I really become a human calculator?

Yes you can! In fact, we literally are walking calculators to begin with. You have all the equipment you need to become a human calculator now, maybe you just don’t know it!

Despite the stellar and strange discoveries in the cosmos, the brain, by popular and scientific consensus, continues to be known as the most complex object in the known universe. There are so many interesting facts about the brain, such as:

• 

  Calculate numbers, hold abstract mathematical concepts: it’s amazing what three pounds of flesh can do. (image source: Morphonix.com)

  85,000 neurons die everyday and get replaced by new ones, which isn’t really shocking, considering that there are around 100 billion neurons in your brain.

• Your brain processes power almost equivalent to that of refrigerator lamp (10 watts).
• The brain lacks nerves that identify pain. As a result, the brain does not produce pain sensations, or is incapable of feeling pain.
• Up to 20% of the body’s oxygen is used up by the brain, which means a similar percentage of blood gets used up. Yes, it is an energy hog.
• It can produce more ideas than the total number of atoms in the universe (Tony Buzan, Head Strong 2001).
• Throughout your life, the brain continues to produce new neurons in response to mental stimulation like reading, learning a new sport, balancing the books, or sharpening your rhetorical skills.

It is probably the one part of the body that you use in a limited capacity: around 10% of it, they say. This fact has been disputed by current research, however. Yet, whether 10% or not, most scientists believe that we use only part of our brains to do conscious mental reasoning, and a large majority of the brain’s entire processing power is devoted to automatic bodily functions.

Can you think how your life would change if you used only 10% of any other organ in your body? Would you like to use only 10% of your heart? I don’t think you would want that. How about your stomach? Your skin? How would you like using only 10% of your eyes? Well, that would render you legally blind, would it not?

When it comes to solving mental math problems, we all want to act like calculators: fast and instant. Since we normally use only a fraction of our brain’s capacities, the solution is simple: use more of it!

We should always try to do more to use our brain. Stimulate your brain with a bit more volume of activities than you think you can handle. What we can do is only limited by what we think we can do at any given time. To exercise your brain, go and challenge yourself!

Not only should we do more to increase capacity, we should keep learning new, quality things. Perhaps you could resolve to learn a new musical instrument, a new language, a new skill each year. Studies have shown that advanced education really makes your brain “younger”, so to speak, due to the continuing replenishment of old brain cells with new ones.

Going through this course will certainly increase your brain’s capacity to think! Our brain allows us to imagine, so when applying the strategies of this course we will ask that you visualize the numbers as you add, subtract, and multiply them mentally. There is no other way of doing it, as it is almost impossible to mentally calculate numbers in your head without some sort of mental “picture”.

Use it! Practice with your upcoming math skills. We don’t call it the most complex object in the known universe for nothing!

How to become a student with better math skills

Becoming a better math student requires more than just learning the right math techniques to your arsenal.

One has to develop a deep understanding of numbers, and how they can be stretched as concepts rather than represent mere numerical values. A dedicated math student should also add to his math arsenal a significant understanding of math symbols. Having a working knowledge of numbers will greatly increase your IQ in mathematics, or your mental math skills.

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth but supreme beauty.

- Bertrand Russell

Three factors will contribute to increased math ability and will further help eliminate that dreaded “mathphobia” which we are all familiar with.

1. Who’s Who in Math

   

   Paul Erdos (1913-1996), who wrote more journals and papers on mathematics than any other mathematician in history, and is widely regarded to be this century’s most eccentric and prolific mathematician, referred to people who had stopped doing math as being already “dead”.

   First, you will have to master the strategies of calculation, both conventional and alternative methods. Aside from enhancing conventional math skills, this course will take you on an Eastern Asian journey. Literally. Much of the approaches here are based on the Vedic math system, which was developed thousands of years ago in India.

   The math strategies taught in this system will create a good base of self-confidence and a willingness to learn other mathematical systems like calculus and algebra. We have such a “phobia” with math that our first instinct when we see math problems is to pull out a calculator. While that is reasonable and legitimate, our calculative abilities tend to suffer. This course will put you on that track to looking at math differently.

2. Next comes practice. Someone said, “Practice makes perfect, but it only leads to more practice.” While we seldom find the gist in that humorous quote, it is a fact of life that we never really master the things that we do, only becoming highly-skilled because of constant practice.You cannot expect to read these strategies and forget about them and then hope to simply pull them out of memory at will. You simply have to practice! With time, you will be able to add, multiply and subtract columns of numbers in your head.
3. Creating a good memory for these math strategies that you’ll be acquainted with is of crucial importance if you’re a serious math student. The memorization of our strategies is vital, but very easy. In fact, once our students look at the strategies they seem a bit let down that there is not a mammoth formulation required to master them.Fortunately, there isn’t a massive formulation and this makes memorizing the strategies that much easier. Effective memorization and recall is possible only if we study these strategies and make a decision to retain them in our minds through constant practice.

After a bit of practice you will master all of the strategies in this system and you alone will become a far better student than simply using more study time doing the conventional way of math.

For Parents: Building a Child’s Confidence

In every success, failure, and all other vicissitudes in life, the important thing is to keep pushing yourself up. Celebrate each success. Learn from your own failures. And while you’re in between, have fun and allow yourself to grow.

Each drama in life is like a chapter; an obstacle to be pursued and jumped over. Yet, only when we learn that we can only succeed through the encouragement of other people can we realize our dreams. A very large part of our success, if not — all of it — comes from watching others achieve it for themselves and getting inspired in the process. Or that, someone believed in us and continued to encourage us after each significant milestone.

Creativity cannot be taught. However, critical thinking can be taught and must be taught.

Why am I telling you this? It is because of confidence in ourselves, and the increased self-esteem which comes with confidence, that allows us to accomplish virtually anything we want.

Self-esteem and confidence are particularly significant especially in learning these courses. If you are a parent, you definitely know how much you want your child to succeed. And yet only a few parents know the value of positively prodding a child in the right direction with appropriate words of praise, adulation, and encouragement.

The series of lessons contained here are no different from what a child goes through at school. There are literal hurdles in these lessons that each student must face. As a parent, we should encourage our children to strive for the next rung on the ladder. Compel yourself to tell your child he/she doing well, and offer encouragement when your child isn’t doing so well. Your child’s confidence in himself plays a great deal in determining whether he feels he will be a success or a failure.

• Do you ridicule your child if she can’t learn how to cube the number 25 in six seconds?
• Do you criticize your daughter for not trying to do mental math from left to right?
• Do you severely reprimand your son if he got the number of groceries wrong contrary to a budget?

If you’re doing these things, say goodbye to a little bit of your child’s confidence. The important thing is to work with patience on those gaffes in calculation your child commits, and compliment him every time he gets it right.

As long as you communicate with grace, your child will come out alright. Lack of communication plays a big part in losing self-esteem for youngsters. If they are not told that they achieved something good, they will not feel good about themselves. As parents we should not assume that by not telling our children they have been bad that they should automatically feel good.

Social success helps breed academic success. If we are to have the future of this country which we all want and deserve, we have to begin planning and acting now. As parents and students we have to create an environment for desire to learn more and apply that added knowledge each day.

Positive reinforcement is what all of us need, not only as children but as adults as well. Compel them to learn fun math on the way!

The right perspectives make learning a little bit easier. We hope the above material was helpful for you in building “mental prerequisites”, so to speak, before you could tackle the material.

After this chapter will be the real meat of the matter: Distributive Properties of Numbers.

Quit stalling! Show me some strategies now!

Haha, hold your horses! You might want to subscribe here at Math is Easy so you could access the rest of the lessons. Being a math genius (or close to it) is a subscription away!