I’ve always sucked at math. All kinds of math. I still use my fingers to count stuff, I have to look a good minute at any watch to tell the time (counting from the earliest number I can name a time to), and can only do long multiplication/division because I was taught the rules for that.
So everyone told me “Well you like to draw and you’re good at memorisation and science so you’ll do great in geometry”. Man, were they wrong. I sucked at that too.
Luckily, as much as everyone says this stuff is necessary, I’ve so far successfully navigated through life as a low-end code monkey without any of it. Although if I were to work as a cashier it would be insanely useful to be able to do math in my head, but after spending my entire childhood practicing it and attempting it, I’ve stopped that style of torture.
By the way, those people who draw bubbles and shapes before actually drawing stuff? They’re only one type of drawer. I draw, but I start with a body part and everything just grows from that point. I’ve seen other people draw that way too, so it must not be too weird.
@WebMachine Did you ever solve the square root of two by hand? I used to know it along time ago but I would love to have that process if you have it. Or from any other math teacher in here. Why? Just for the sake of having it that’s all.
Yes, there are actually two ways of doing it - one is a lot like long division, and the other one, if I remember correctly is called Newton’s method. When I get a moment I’ll send you some short instructions for them (Now this is really fun, because I’m a retired high school math teacher turned web developer.)
Great! I had a retired Marine Colonel for an Algebra teacher in high school and he was the guy that got me fired up in Math. LOL He also taught us Craps in the back of the class with dice. It wa a great time.
One way to calculate square roots manually is just by trial and improvement. You know that sqrt(2) is going to be somewhere between 1 and 2, so you start with 1.5, and work out that that is sqrt(2.25), so you try 1.4, which is sqrt(1.96), and carry on like that until you’ve got a suitable level of accuracy.
A little less guessing would be this: Since the square root of a number multiplied by itself gives the number, find pairs of factors of the number that get increasingly close to each other. For example, to find the square root of 18, start with 18 = 3 x 6. The square root will be somewhere between 3 and 6, so find the average: (3+6)/2 = 4.5. Divide 18 by 4.5 to get 4. The square root of 18 will be between 4. 5 and 4. So find the average: (4.5 + 4)/2 = 4.25 and divide that into 18. Keep going until you get the accuracy that you want. BTQ the square root of 18 is approx. 4.243.
The same steps can be used to find the square root of 2.
