When I was in the first grade and maybe the second I could do math addition and subtraction backward (from left to right) and do it mostly faster than all the kids carrying from right to left. I often wonder how that would have developed and affected my life if I had never been "corrected". I can still do it a little bit but I never fully developed that skill because it was considered "wrong" by my teachers and I relearned how to do it the traditional way.
Do you mean to say that when you did, for example,
22 +
19
you would go 20+10 is 30, 2+9 is 11, 30+11 is 41?
That's definitely the fastest way to do addition and subtraction in your head, though I don't think I've heard it expressed like that before, or heard of it being done that way on paper. Interesting.
Or, maybe you went 2+1 is 3, 2+9 is 1, carry a 1, 41? Also interesting, basically the same as the "traditional" paper way of doing it, only backwards. There's no real reason it should be faster though, so it just would have been that you were used to doing it that way. There's nothing wrong with that way though. It still gets you the right answer.
I think I probably did it like the later example. Who knows, I was probably faster just because I got it quicker than other students anyway. It's hard to tell because I was so young, heck, I am even having trouble remembering how I did it but I think it was the later method.
I did read a book called Miracle Math about half a dozen years ago though that taught the first method for both addition and subtraction. I loved it, it just felt natural and I was getting quick with it but then got distracted and kind of lost my interest. I should look that book back up again. It was a lot of fun.
But wine was the great assassin of both tradition and propriety...
-Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings
-Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings
Five Things We Don't Know About You.
- 03/12/2010 09:23:17 PM
2182 Views
Five? That's a lot.
- 03/12/2010 09:34:06 PM
1557 Views
Re: Five? That's a lot.
- 04/12/2010 10:53:45 PM
1457 Views
Re: Five? That's a lot.
- 05/12/2010 04:31:33 AM
1510 Views
Re: Five? That's a lot.
- 07/12/2010 02:05:46 AM
1528 Views
Hmmm... I'll play.
- 03/12/2010 09:38:13 PM
1428 Views
Fiver, The Prophetic Bunny.
- 04/12/2010 02:01:13 AM
1464 Views
/me claps A GAME!! I love games!! <3
- 04/12/2010 02:31:00 AM
1540 Views
- 07/12/2010 02:27:09 PM
1388 Views
- 07/12/2010 02:27:09 PM
1388 Views
Ok. I'll give it a go.
- 04/12/2010 11:24:49 PM
1499 Views
Mayonnaise is delicious. *NM*
- 05/12/2010 09:24:44 PM
729 Views
*NM*
Hey! Me too!
- 06/12/2010 05:17:15 PM
1424 Views
I don't know what you know
- 05/12/2010 12:07:51 AM
1390 Views
You Knit!!!
- 06/12/2010 05:29:19 PM
1434 Views
I knit.
- 06/12/2010 06:45:20 PM
1380 Views
Recipes?
- 06/12/2010 07:14:35 PM
1368 Views
Re: Recipes?
- 06/12/2010 07:15:49 PM
1448 Views
I still think it works.
- 06/12/2010 07:29:59 PM
1348 Views
Hush!
- 06/12/2010 07:31:38 PM
1384 Views
Re: Hush!
- 06/12/2010 07:41:23 PM
1657 Views
Re: I don't know what you know
- 07/12/2010 02:29:34 PM
1469 Views
Re: I don't know what you know
- 07/12/2010 02:33:22 PM
1498 Views
Any chance that this gets announced so more people see it and take part? *NM*
- 05/12/2010 09:12:02 PM
793 Views
I fear you do know everything about me
- 06/12/2010 10:15:07 AM
1436 Views
Alright
- 06/12/2010 06:11:32 PM
1474 Views
You dislike maths and post jokes like the one you just did? 
*NM*
- 06/12/2010 07:34:44 PM
754 Views
*NM*
- 06/12/2010 07:34:44 PM
754 Views
"Broken, bleeding knuckles?"
- 06/12/2010 09:20:49 PM
1337 Views
They get really, really dry in the winter and start to bleed.
- 06/12/2010 09:42:49 PM
1343 Views
I highly appreciate that fact that Starry"s post got threadjacked!! Awesome. *NM*
- 06/12/2010 10:53:07 PM
836 Views
again, with actual answers!
- 07/12/2010 01:34:43 PM
1344 Views