[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Years ago I tried to learn the Trachtenberg system of system of speed math. I still couldn’t get it!

I thought heaven had come down to earth when the first hand held calculator went on the market.

[RoosterRedux]

I completely agree.

I didn't know I was good at math until my friend loaned me his Texas Instruments calculator in grad school.

Everything changed. The world became a simpler place.

[RoosterRedux]

I think the tedium of math must keep a lot of people at bay.

I am much better at math once the adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing are done away with.

The concepts are clean and clear without the bothersome details.

[hanamizu]

I thought heaven had come down to earth when the first hand held calculator went on the market.

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My first year of college in the early 60s calculators first hit the market. You could get a four function calculator for only 500 1964 dollars. The STEM students all had slide rules they wore sheathed on their belts.

[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?

[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....

[Thank You Rush]

I don’t think the word “calculator” was even among our spelling words when I went to school. I would have welcomed the use of one but I’m sure it wouldn’t have been allowed...

[Stanwood_Dave]

"first hand held calculator"

The first hand held calculator I personally seen was at a store in (Brentwood) Long Island, New York, for the cheap price of IIRC, $129.00. About the size of a common Bank, check-book. If I recall correctly, without looking circa 1968-9.

My Second run in with a "hand held calculator," was in math class, Brentwood, {East} junior high (8th grade,) Algebra. It turned out, a guy who I thought was like me, (Let's just say math avoidance at any and all cost,) was a walking , talking SUPER COMPUTER IN MATH. How did I learn this, well we were talking in class, the teacher (Mr Gekko, spelling?) called on my friend Tommy Baldwin, hoping to make a point, (a.k.a. an a$$ of) that we needed to pay attention. Tommy took over the class, showing 6 or 10 different ways to solve the problem, he had on the chalk / black board. After that the teacher, trying to show off his NEW HAND HELD CALCULATOR, and trying to save face, challenged Tommy to a contest, calling out loud, different math problems, and before he could enter the problem, into the his NEW HAND HELD CALCULATOR, Tommy would shout out the answer. Talk about a a$$ kicking, by an 8th grader, Tommy. The teacher never bothered Tommy again.

I knew Tommy at this time maybe 6 month's plus, and never did I get a hint, that he was a walking math genius. After that day, again never a word from Tommy on the subject of math. Go figure.