How is your mental arithmetic?

btw, my mental arithmatic i'd say is quite good. I used to work in a casino as a croupier on roulette tables, your aritmatic has to be instant.
 
When I was bored in sixth form I taught myself to do logarithms to the base 10 in my head - and did all the logs for my Physics practical that way - and to square five digit numbers in my head.

Although it's not as good as it once was, I'd say mine is still pretty good.
 
Mr Jack said:
When I was bored in sixth form I taught myself to do logarithms to the base 10 in my head - and did all the logs for my Physics practical that way - and to square five digit numbers in my head.

Although it's not as good as it once was, I'd say mine is still pretty good.
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On a scale of 1 to good, you're Rain Man.
 
Mental maths is probably my best skill out of everything. I have always been the best in my classes at mental maths. One of my teachers advised my parents that it would be a waste if I didn't take a job that greatly involved mental maths and maths in general.
 
Not great and getting worse. Like a lot of things. If it wasn't for ocuk I think I would have lost the ability to write/type.
Lack of mental stimulation at work isn't great for the mind.
 
I once bought a newspaper for my Grandad (we are talking 8 years ago).
The paper was something like 42p and I handed over £1. The girl at Spar did not look at the till and did not see what the change was on the LCD before it vanished.
She couldn't work out what my change was. When I said 58p she was impressed.
What a retard. I don't expect other people's maths to be brilliant but I do expect to be able to subtract an integer from 100 without a calculator/computer doing it for you.

My mental arithmetic is good enough. I am an engineer so I can do things like matrices (for FEA) and mechanics quite well. I like to visualise problems and find 'core' maths more challenging.
 
Simple everyday maths - brilliant whilst everyone is still messing about with fingers and phones i'll already have the answer, i'm no whizz but i'm very comfortable with numbers.
more complicated maths - Well lets say i didnt retain much more than long devision from high school maths...
 
AcidHell2 said:
Not great and getting worse. Like a lot of things. If it wasn't for ocuk I think I would have lost the ability to write/type.
Lack of mental stimulation at work isn't great for the mind.
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I'm becoming seriously concerned I'm going to forget how to sign my name. Since cards went Chip 'n' Pin I hardly ever need to do it and my signature is becoming increasingly erratic.
 
billysielu said:
seven eights are 56!

did you not memorise your times tables at school?
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And you quoted my answer with 56?

No I don't remember my time tables. I can work it manually in a few seconds, waste of brain space =P

The hardest math problems I took on are ODEs, PDEs, and some Fourier and Laplace transforms but that's because of my work.

I know mathematicians that are terrible at arithmetic but excellent at higher math. Higher math is much more of measure of creativity and imagination than long term memory. Where as remembering times tables is long term memory. I have terrible memory, I can't even remember my own phone number. Yet I implement mathematical algorithms all the time. My working memories alright though, I can do calculus in my head until integration by parts comes into it or the expression has to many terms in it.
 
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I am embarrassingly bad at maths. I struggle with even basic addition at times and give up trying to work out anything in my head out of frustration and embarrassment.
I'm sure with effort I'd be fine, as I was reading to a very high level early on life and can pick up most subjects fairly quickly, so am obviously not a complete tard, but seem to have a bit of a stumbling block. It is in fact something I have been working on recently, and am slowly getting better :)
Strangely I remember large multiples prevalent in computing?

I think there are probably millions of younger people like me out there now though which won't even bother attempting to correct their apparent inability, and will instead be branded under a blanket maths inability by teachers and parents alike. This I think is quite sad.
 
I think a lot of people fear mental math and get "bad" at it because they think they need the result to be spot-on.

However in real life you just need to make a good ESTIMATE - and this can save you from being ripped off or it just acts as a quick check to ensure you got back the right change etc.

So round up the figures & spit out a guesstimate - you dont have to be exact. This is the real world not a math exam :)

Like anything else just practice it as much as you can and you will get better!
 
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During revising for my engineering analytical maths and science exams, I scared myself with how quick/good my mental arithmetic became. Four months later and my mental arithmetic is worse than before I began revision.

In a month I'm starting a new job which will likely involve lots of calculations, so hopefully I'll un-break my mind and get good again.
 
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