timydamonkey wrote:
I could never understand remainders.
I am a great "mental mathematician" but I could never figure out the remainder system. I used to just write like this:
32 + 16 = 48
as opposed to:
32
+16
-------
-------
Because I could calculate it in my head so it was pointless to try and learn some stupid way of doing it that just confused me. My teachers got mad at me once so I started writing it like that but steadfastly refusing to write remainders as I couldn't figure them out (don't see how it matters if I get to the right answer anyway except on stupid "show your workings" questions). They also got mad at me for incorrectly writing the number 8 for four years because I couldn't follow how they wanted me to write it.
I find mental arithmetic easy. I don't like that calculators are constantly used now as it was the one maths area I could actually do (contrast: in five years I didn't learn how to use a compass or protractor, it totally confounded me).
Remainders, isn't that when you divide and it doesn't produce natural number? Like 1/8 =.125? But yeah, arithmetic is a great way to keep one's brain busy.
11 Jan 2010, 2:31 pm
