11–20 of 208 posts
Triple the initial number, add a zero at the end, now halve the resulting number is good enough for my purpose. Brain is surprisingly good at doubling, tripling and halving operations. And visually added zero is quite easy too.
The pendulum has now swung the other way on the misconception by the general public of mathematicians being great at mental arithmetic, and it's become a meme for some mathematicians to take some pride in being average or poor at mental arithmetic. In my experience, most mathematicians (or anyone working in a quantitative field) don't have issues quickly approximating 1.6 * X.
Fascinating that the second reply (or second best reply?) is an unreasonably angry response: Who the hell needs all this .. Get lost [angry emoji]
Never mind the fact that SI is generally used for engineering and other areas where it has legitimate advantages (which miles vs. kilometers doesn't really in day-to-day life).
Triple the initial number, add a zero at the end, now halve the resulting number is good enough for my purpose. Brain is surprisingly good at doubling, tripling and halving operations. And visually added zero is quite easy too.
*3, *10, /2 == *15
I'm surprised this is faster than adding half of the original number.
The pendulum has now swung the other way on the misconception by the general public of mathematicians being great at mental arithmetic, and it's become a meme for some mathematicians to take some pride in being average or poor at mental arithmetic. In my experience, most mathematicians (or anyone working in a quantitative field) don't have issues quickly approximating 1.6 * X.
It's 1(n) + 6(n)/10 since we're using base 10. For example, 5mi to ~8km: 1(5) + 6(5)/10 = 5 + 30/10 or 5 + 3.
Triple the initial number, add a zero at the end, now halve the resulting number is good enough for my purpose. Brain is surprisingly good at doubling, tripling and halving operations. And visually added zero is quite easy too.
That converts miles to approximate hectometres.