THE “MATHEMAGICIAN”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17453, 30 December 1930, Page 5

THE “MATHEMAGICIAN”

LIGHTNING CALCULATION LONDON, Nov. 11. Mr. A. 11. Russell, headmaster of East Bristol Central School, appeared in the role of “mathemagician at Bedford College, Regent’s Bark, when he gave members of the London branch of the Mathematical Association some striking examples of lightning) calculation. , . , , . By his system of applying algebraic methods to arihmetic, squaring numbers, and subtracting or adding remainders, ho showed how seven-figure sums could bo worked out and answers obtained in three-line calculations in a lew seconds. Plain four-rule problems, 1 factions and decimal?, money and weights and measures, were all. dealt with on the sumo/ system. “If mi average boy of 10 or .14 is shown what, funny things can be done by numbers,” be remarked, ‘ that boy will become keen on tho work lor its own sake. Some,of my boys can multiply thousands by four figures and write the answers down straight away. But I’m not so keen on them becoming lightning calculators as on directing them in the way of time-saving and stimulating the algebraic spirit.