How many can do long division and long multiplication?

[Lucas156]

Im just curious how many in here can do long division and long multiplication all on a piece of paper. In light of the eliminating cursive thread I figured I'd ask. I figured this is a must skill but how long until they say we don't need it because we have calculators?

 

[Scutter01]

Pfft. Wake me when we're doing tensor equations in our heads.

 

[rambone]

In light of the eliminating cursive thread I figured I'd ask. I figured this is a must skill but how long until they say we don't need it because we have calculators?

Shaping letters is one thing.

Learning to calculate basic arithmetic is a must skill and should always remain a must skill.

 

[rjstew317]

It's been at least 15 years since I had to do any of that on paper, don't know if I would remember how.

 

[lovemachine]

I'd RATHER do math on paper than a calculator. And I use all kinds of math everyday at work. Machinist for 14 years.

 

[Scutter01]

My daughter failed a math test last year because, although she got all the answers right, she didn't arrive at them using the teacher's bass-ackward method of drawing grids and circles. She used long division and long multiplication, saying "Why can't I just do it this way? It's fewer steps and I can do it in my head! This other way is stupid; who would do math like this?!" I took her out for ice cream to celebrate her non "A" grade.

 

[G_Stines]

Yup, I can do them both. I can also do "old" and "new" math. I was home schooled for a while and learned old math very young from my parents, and got thrown for a loop when I went to a public high middle/high school and had to learn "new" math. I got over it eventually

 

[eldirector]

Can? yes.
Enjoy? Not even close.

I'm one of those kids that "just didn't get it" in school. My dad, being an engineer, "got it", but couldn't explain it. My mother was an English major.....

I've never learned any shortcuts. Either I do it completely longhand, or I use a calculator/Excel.

 

[Westside]

I got a C in my differential equations class in college. where do I fall in this scale?

 

[Lucas156]

Yup, I can do them both. I can also do "old" and "new" math. I was home schooled for a while and learned old math very young from my parents, and got thrown for a loop when I went to a public high middle/high school and had to learn "new" math. I got over it eventually

Whats the difference between old math and new math? I know my Dad has an "analog" calculator, if thats what you would call it but I never learned how to use it.

 

[rjstew317]

Whats the difference between old math and new math? I know my Dad has an "analog" calculator, if thats what you would call it but I never learned how to use it.

one of these!

 

[eldirector]

Old vs. New

Parents teaching 'old math' on the sly - USATODAY.com

 

[Doug]

How many remember how to find square roots?

We used slide rules in college. I still have a 3 inch circular rule like Peter Sellers used in Dr. Strangelove.

 

[Scutter01]

Whats the difference between old math and new math? I know my Dad has an "analog" calculator, if thats what you would call it but I never learned how to use it.

"Old math" is traditional long division and multiplication. "New math" is any new way of doing the same problem. Some are better than the old ways, some are much worse. Personally, when I do multiplication in my head, I use a combination of old and new. I tend to break problems up into pieces and solve them individually, and then put the pieces back together. That allows me to solve in parallel and I can do it much quicker than I can on paper. On paper, a standard long multiplication problem has to be solved in serial, one step at a time.

 

[Lucas156]

Old vs. New

Parents teaching 'old math' on the sly - USATODAY.com

This part to me is concerning:

"But in his fourth-grade class, long division wasn't on the agenda. As many parents across the country know, this and some other familiar formulas have been supplanted, in an increasing number of schools, by concept-based curricula aiming to teach the ideas behind mathematics rather than rote procedures."

So if you learn the ideas behind mathematics are you still learning how to do actually do it? This sounds stupid to me.
One other thing about the article, they say they try to teach multiple ways to get to the same result yet they don't teach long division? If you are teaching different ways to do it then why aren't you teaching that too as an alternative. Mind blowing.

 

[Expat]

No problem with this. I still remember a lot of my algebra and geometry. Not sure how well I could get back into Calculus as I have not had to use it in the last 30 years.

 

[Lucas156]

"Old math" is traditional long division and multiplication. "New math" is any new way of doing the same problem. Some are better than the old ways, some are much worse. Personally, when I do multiplication in my head, I use a combination of old and new. I tend to break problems up into pieces and solve them individually, and then put the pieces back together. That allows me to solve in parallel and I can do it much quicker than I can on paper. On paper, a standard long multiplication problem has to be solved in serial, one step at a time.

I agree I do the same thing but some math you just have to write down because the numbers are so large. If you only know "new math" which it sounds like is just doing it in your head then how are you going to be able to break through those very large numbers without a calculator? I guess we wont and it seems like something that will be lost to many people in time.

 

[hoosierdaddy1976]

was great in math in high school. scored 740 on my sat my junior year of hs, took a fourth year of math. tested into calculus at college but didn't take it as a frosh. switched schools and majors- only needed one math credit and i could take a computer science class to cover that. closest thing to actual math i took was my psych statistics class, and we could look up the formulas for the test.

i can still do long division and multiplication, but have forgotten much of what i learned.

 

[Scutter01]

I agree I do the same thing but some math you just have to write down because the numbers are so large. If you only know "new math" which it sounds like is just doing it in your head then how are you going to be able to break through those very large numbers without a calculator? I guess we wont and it seems like something that will be lost to many people in time.

That's kind of the whole point. It doesn't matter how large the number is.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I think sticking to just one method or another to suit 100% of all situations is moronic. You should know and understand not only math theory, but also many different rote processes so that you can apply whichever method (or combination thereof) is the fastest for you, given the constraints of both the problem and the circumstances under which you need to solve it.

 

[Mike H]

Math is def. more confusing now than when I was a kid. It was a lot more simpler like this.....
2 + 2 = 4
2 X 2 = 4
Simple.