Easy Speed Math they Don't Teach You in School - Part 5 - Squaring

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[sauropod]

bkmk

[sparklite2]

The first hand calculator I ever saw was from Texas Instruments. It couldn’t do much beyond add/subtract/multiply/divide. This would have been in about 1972 and its owner paid eighty dollars for it. This was about the time ‘digital’ wrist watches came out with their itty-bitty numbers that came on when you pressed a button where the stem winder would be. Remember those? Well, they were still better than pet rocks.

[momincombatboots]

Sounds fun!!

[ex91B10]

But did they have the nifty pocket protectors?

[hanamizu]

The first calculator I ever saw was in a psychology class around 1971

---

Maybe in ‘65 or ‘66 I took psychological statistics. We had a room full of Marchant calculators that could with a great deal of effort (and holding one’s mouth just right) calculate square roots. There were at least 100 keys on the machine and it was incredibly easy to make a mistake. It was electric, but really just mechanical.

[Bigg Red]

That’s crazy! Very interesting.

[Vinnie]

Trachtenberg system

I recall reading about a German citizen in a WWII concentration camp that devised a new method of doing calculations.
Is this the system?

[Scrambler Bob]

One day in the Student Book Store (about 1972) I saw an HP 35, and asked to handle it.

Clerk did not want to let a pony-tailed, bare-footed, scummy student touch that $400 (1972$) item, but she did (with a sneer).

I clicked a few keys, saw the SIN and COS (and more) and realizing the computational power, said, “That’s cool” and handed it back.

I continued using my 6-inch Post Versalog for my student Engineering calcs.

With my first job, they got us a couple of HP 35’s. We had one with the ‘error’, and had it fixed.

“Early HP-35s had some errors - bugs! A bug in ex meant that typing: “2.02 ln ex” gives the result 2. instead of 2.02 but this was soon removed - indeed HP sent a recall notice to owners of early HP-35 units to get this fixed. An early HP-35 with this bug is worth more to a collector than one without! Another bug is that the sine of some small angles comes out completely wrong - this was dealt with after the other bug, so later versions have neither bug.”

One day, many years later, it was turned in as Govt. surplus.

[madison10]

Wonder where I put my slide rule. My dad, who was a computer programmer (late 60s through late 90s) showed me how to use it. We used them in science class, too. We were not allowed to use calculators. (Graduated high school ‘77)

[FrogMom]

That IS fun! He keeps talking about “your workbooks”. Have any idea where to get those? I binged and checked Amazon - no joy. Would love to teach this to my GDaughter who has been FREAKING traumatized by Common Core math.

[SMGFan]

For fun, Anyone who has never heard Tom Lehrer: New Math (concert live) (1965) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6OaYPVueW4

[plain talk]

This old dog never saw that before. nice

[Nifster]

Any calculator will not elucidate differential equations, calculus, Greens theorem, or any other bit of mathematics.

Calculators allow you to number crunch

[RoosterRedux]

I haven't used a calculator since the advent of MS Excel.

In Excel, you can design a missile and its trajectory to Mars if you have the knowledge.

I am studying VBA for Excel and am amazed at its power.

Kaboom!

I majored/specialized in mathematical modeling and find Excel capable of all I need.

If there is something better, please advise us all.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Yes it is. If you can remember in the 1960s all the pulp magazines had advertisements for this new system. I believe the advertisers stole the system from Trachtenberg and tried to pass it off as their own.

[metmom]

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[Nailbiter]

Flr

[Thank You Rush]

“”Years ago I tried to learn the Trachtenberg system of system of speed math””

Me too, years ago. I wish I still had the book. I could get some of it but I certainly didn’t retain ANY of it...It was very interesting AND fun for someone who always hated math!

Thanks for your post because I always have trouble remembering the name of that system....

[S.O.S121.500]

Once you just KNOW the results of fundamental computations, you can discard all the methods.
-X-X-X-X-X-
Reminds me of Cribbage......

[4yearlurker]

15,2 15, 4 and a pair is 6,right jack is 7.