Thoughts on multiplication in my head.
Watched a Big Bang Theory rerun last night, the one with Amy Farrah Fowler's smoking monkey. Anyway, it had this exchange:
Amy: How come if we’re the smart people, we don’t do this every night?
Sheldon: What’s 16 times 14?
Amy: My burps taste like cranberry juice.
Sheldon: And there’s your answer.
And I stopped. (I can do that. I have a DVR. We live in the future.)
I could not quickly do that math in my head. I believe it would be faster for me to write a quick Perl script to do that math (not just pop up a REPL) than for me to think it through. Of course, I could pull out a pad and pencil and do that math faster, but Amy didn't have a pad and pencil.
I know the trick -- n^2 - 1 == (n-1 * n+1 ) -- so 16 * 14 == 15 * 15 - 1 but working through to what 15 * 15 is, that was not quick and easy for me.
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