I find the squares interesting - that the square of a number ending in 1 or 9 always ends in 1, 2 or 8 in 4, 3 or 7 in 9, 4 or 6 in 6, 0 in 0 and 5 in 5.

There are a lot of other cool properties, and, of course, squares are just special cases of multiplication in general.

Maybe we should have a math(s)-specific forum.

Exactly. isn't it so much more interesting to note that rather than just learning by rote that 6*6 = 36?

And it's fun to note when squares and cubes pop up in the fibonnacci sequence etc...... but rote learning misses all of this

I once stumbled on this for a sequential series of squares:
Given: B(n) = A(n) squared, and C(n) = B(n) - B(n-1)
Then: C(n) = C(n-1) + 2

For example, in rows 5 and 6 below...
C = 25 - 16 = 09
C = 36 - 25 = 11

A__B__C
01 01 01
02 04 03
03 09 05
04 16 07
05 25 09
06 36 11
07 49 13
08 64 15
09 81 17
10 100 19
... ... ...
35 1225 69
36 1296 71
37 1369 73
38 1444 75
39 1521 77
40 1600 79
41 1681 81
... ... ...
etc.

You people are corrupting my thread about English with Maths!???

I think you can count on it. :bolt:

They're both languages with beauty. I think you'll find we're improving it :)

I'm a prime number fan, myself.

But I spent grades 9-12 with my 3 closest friends who had gone through 8 years of catholic school. They had memorized their multiplication tables and grammar rules, but couldn't write a poem to save their lives. Nor could they grasp highly conceptual ideas. They learned how though - one was our valedictorian.

Since there is no math/s forum, we have to math in other forums.

Ali, will you accept a compromise ?

Mathematical Beauty: A limerick
Doesn’t it just gladden your heart to see
These games we can play with infinity?
How can one stay aloof
From the elegance of a proof
And remain immune to mathematics’ subtle beauty?

Punya Mishra, Jan 27, 2010

I warned you guys about this. You are all on report (except Ali, since she started this thread about English.)

Penalty for posting maths in a non-math forum should be calculated by dividing the square root of the number of maths posts by the cube root of the number of non-math posts in that thread, then taking the base 10 log of the result and multiplying by the square root of -1.

42

TILT

That's not a prime

The times tables have worked perfectly well for hundreds of years. They aren't broke and don't need fixing.

My friend's kids can't multiply or divide 3 digit numbers by paper and pencil, they have to pull out a calculator ... heck, they can't even figure a restaurant bill, tax, and tip without a calculator, not just because it's faster, but because the math is simply beyond them. And they're not dumb kids.

But they didn't have to learn their times tables. They had to understand concepts. Which is even further down that road paved with good intentions than the New Math.

Calculators are on the elementary school supply lists now, along with paper, pencils, a see through backpack to prevent school shootings, and a nice pencil case (clear also). I wasn't even allowed to touch a calculator until my Junior Year of high school, and then only for trigonometry.

Not here they're not. No calculators until 7th grade. All my kids can do long division. Thor's doing some right now, as it happens.