Daily Archives: July 27, 2006

Math Magic

I just started reading Scott Flansburg’s Math Magic book. It’s all about more efficient and intelligent ways of doing math. It’s an idea I’ve long wanted to try–to increase my speed and ability to crunch numbers in my head. The hard part is practice–how do you make yourself good at this without a lot of practice? And how fun is it to practice adding numbers in your head? It’s easy to think of some periodic situations: shopping and budget balancing, for example, but after that I’m not sure.

I think I’ll write a small PocketPC app that can give me random problems to solve in my head, as well as time me and note improvements. Cool…any excuse to write a program!