Saturday, May 06, 2006

More PT

Three Hundred Forty First Post: More PT

I have one of those recumbent exercise bikes. I position it sideways near the computer desk and pedal as I surf. It is quite convenient even though it is hard to type. I was burning nearly 300 calories and decided to search how many calories are in a pound of fat. The estimate is not exact, but close estimates are 3500 calories to 1 lb. of fat. Also consider that when you exercise a little more than 1/4th of the calories are fat calories. Now that is a lot of exercies!

Also I have noticed a youngster I know who is still counting on there finger to do multiplication. In grade school students are taught to memorize everything, including times tables. To an extent it is memory combined with familiarization when you use them. But here is a little trick I know that teaches kids about series of numbers and the meaning behind the multiplication. When I was a kid there was this man on the news who could do the four basic math operations in his head faster than a calculator or at least as fast. When ask his secret he said he couldn’t explain everything because it was in his mind, but he did have some math tricks that go against what is usually taught in school. When adding he added left to right as opposed to right to left. And here is a little simple and easy trick for multiplication.

We know that 70*10=70 and 10-7=3 and 3*10=30 and 10*100=100 and 100-30=70

What should we note 10-7=3 so that (10*10)-(10*(10-7))=70 or (10*10)-30=70 or 100-30=70

Looks confusing than it really is. I might have more on this in another post. But when you are multiplying in your mind, it is sometimes easy to work with 10s and smaller values.

But until the lost dog comes home... May the Creative Force be with You

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