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Kids Today

I really feel at home amongst you lot. You think like I do!!!!!!!
 
Yes but deprive them of this phone and they can't do anything. We've already agreed that telling the time is beyond them. I expect adding up and map reading is as well. It's the dependency on the phone that is the problem.

Well...not all of them. After all, it's not that difficult. I can distinctly remember realising that I'd learned how to read a clock face and being quite excited at acquirring such a grown-up skill - an even bigger milestone than learning to tie my own shoelaces - once I'd understood that there were sixty minutes in an hour it wasn't much of a leap to see that the fast moving hand represented the minutes and the slow one the hours. Mind you, I couldn't believe at first that I'd stumbled upon the solution as it seemed too simple, and for a while I wondered if I'd got it wrong and there was actually more to time telling than my young mind was able to grasp. :)

My point is, even if using an analogue clock isn't a necessary skill it's not hard to work out almost by accident.

If I spot any children with analogue watches I'll make a note of it.

Afterthought: There is of course a huge choice of attractive analogue clock apps and widgets for smartphones and computers and these are very popular. I'd assume their use isn't restricted just to those of us who can remember Tiswas.
 
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...just one of the many issues affecting the unbovvered community...
 
Having the ability to do maths such as long division gave us a familiarity with working with numbers that they don't have today.
 
Was listening to No Such thing as a Fish, and one of the facts mentioned in the show was that over time children's self control has increased.
Not by a lot, but averaging out to six seconds a generation.
Interesting, though seeing the way games like mine craft work I can believe it. A friend's ten year old showed me the complex machinery he'd put together in the game.
Kind of runs against the idea that kids are getting less focused.

As for books, it was a slow process, but these days I now read from my phone almost exclusively. I have a small library of books and audiobook, and just can't fit paperbacks in my jeans like I used to.
And since they stopped making pants with ridiculous picket sizes, hardcovers are a lost cause.
 
I used simple maths at work but what seems logical to me seems like magic to some youngsters. Some ask how I worked something out. An older person, for example, if asked to calculate 11 x 16 in their head would in all likelihood times the 16 by 10 and then take off 16. Perhaps new methods of teaching don't allow kids to do that.
 
How I learned to multiply a double digit number by 11 is to add the two numerals and put them in the middle. So 11x16=176 because 1+6=7, and that 7 goes between the 1 and 6.
 
I've met a similar situation with younger work colleagues who didn't have the same mental flexibility with numbers as I had. They could get to the correct answer in the end but in a more laborious manner - and that was using a calculator as well. I don't think they can juggle numbers like older folk can. It's the way they are taught these days.
 
How I learned to multiply a double digit number by 11 is to add the two numerals and put them in the middle. So 11x16=176 because 1+6=7, and that 7 goes between the 1 and 6.
I'm amazed I never knew that, brilliant.
 
How I learned to multiply a double digit number by 11 is to add the two numerals and put them in the middle. So 11x16=176 because 1+6=7, and that 7 goes between the 1 and 6.
I'd heard of this one. It's things like this that I like about maths.
 
Anybody else know any nifty tricks with figures?
 
Anybody else know any nifty tricks with figures?
I was taught a 'Napier's Bones' method of multiplication at an early age (from a class-mate).

Like this:
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You multiply each pair of number together and write the product in the square 'for each pair'. So 2 x 9 =18, in the top left square, 6 x 9=54 in the top right and so on. If a product is in single digits, place a zero in the leading half of the square.

Then add the numbers together along the diagonal lines, starting with the diagonal on the far right (2), this is the least significant digit of the answer. Then the next (8+4+4=16), the '6' is the next digit of the answer, carry the '1' to the next diagonal and add (4+2+6+5+1=18). And so on.

You'll need you 12 x tables to make this fly fast, but I generally can outperform most people using this method and it's relatively error proof as the steps are simple in themselves.
 
It's taken me a couple of minutes to study what you did there, but this is certainly a very good trick! It's certainly one I've never seen before. Off to find a paper and pen now and have a go myself!! Presumably you're multiplying 246 x 97 in this example?
 
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