Subj : Re: Hey Nick
To   : alt.tv.farscape
From : Tyler Trafford
Date : Tue Sep 06 2005 05:00:33

From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape

weirdwolf wrote:
> Jim Larson wrote:
>> weirdwolf wrote:
>>
>>> It amazes me the number of people who when you ask them what is 4 *7
>>> automatically answer 28 but when you ask what is 7*4 have to pause. 
>> 
>> (Those people, assuming they've finished grade school, are stupid.)
>
> It a fnction of how the times tables are taught at school. Repetion
> through them, starting with 1*0 is 0 through to 12*12 is 144. Without
> somebody actually pointing out the blindingly obvious ,ost people
> never think about it.In the far east apparently instead of teaching
> them in that way they only continue from the ones they haven't done
> before, so after 7*12 they start the next at 8*8 in effect you can
> imagine the tables as a triangle and not a square. It cuts down on the
> amount of memorization required and allows for more flexible thinking
> about what is actually going on.

This is where being lazy comes in handy.  I never memorized any more
than absolutely necessary.
-- 
Tyler Trafford

It's amazing how much "mature wisdom" resembles being too tired.

.