My wife Peggy is a math professor at the University of Southern Maine, so guess who my kids go to when struggling with math homework?
I can add up a golf score with the best of them (and sometimes that can be a pretty big number!) and can calculate 20% of a restaurant tab with no issue. However, get to the bigger stuff and I slow up considerably.
I did OK in calculus and statistics—and I always liked geometry (maybe because it had such concrete manifestations), but algebra always kicked my butt. Quadratic equations were my personal Waterloo, as I always screwed up the order of operations. I would do the same problem five times, come up with the same answer---and it would be WRONG.
Maybe that’s why the video you’re about to see blew me away.
Arthur Benjamin is a “mathemagician”. He makes at least part of his living demonstrating his unbelievable powers of calculation in front of live audiences.
Check this out:
http://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_benjamin_does_mathemagic.html
Amazing doesn’t begin to describe what is going on inside that guy’s head! I was looking forward to the last part where Arthur decided to verbalize his thinking process as he squares that 5-digit number. I was excited because I thought I would get some insight into his amazing process.
I didn’t.
What he verbalized confused me even more. There’s no way I can get inside that brain!
If you’d like my blog in your box, just let me know: tim.moore@cumulus.com
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