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arundelo comments on [Link] Why the kids don’t know no algebra - Less Wrong Discussion

21 Post author: GLaDOS 04 July 2012 10:29AM

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Comment author: arundelo 05 July 2012 01:59:47AM *  0 points [-]

I now agree with both sentences!

Edit: Although it is possible to do arithmetic without memorizing multiplication tables and similar large collections of arithmetic facts (by, say, drawing dots on paper and counting them). See one of my favorite quotes.

Comment author: CronoDAS 05 July 2012 09:49:59PM *  1 point [-]

Yeah, it's just much more efficient that way. (Sometimes when I had a bit of trouble recalling the product of, say, 8 * 7, I found myself doing things like calculating 7 * 7+7 to find the answer instead.)

Also, a professor I had at college for one of my computer-related courses said that the long division algorithm is one of the most complicated algorithms around and it's by far more complicated than any of the other algorithms taught in school.