Unbeliavable!! great book, it's a must have!!

Unbeliavable!! great book, it's a must have!!

As a previous college Math student (minor in Mathematics), I'm always intrigued by the vast opinions and insight in the community available in print. By far my favorite has to be How To Solve It by Polya (a classic text any troubleshooting person should read). I have to say that this book, in my estimation, should be in every Math student's bookshelf.

Vali, you have a gem here! I'm glad someone finally dumped what I was trying to show fellow college Math into an easy to read book.


HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Marty A. Nickison, BSCS, Net+

The first half of this book is simple techniques/tricks for performing mental arithmetic. The second half is an introduction to high school algebra. The author's target audience is 10 to 14 year olds.

I am a working mathematician and enjoyed the first half of the book. It certainly taught me a few tricks that I didn't know before. Multiplying two or three digit numbers together is a lot easier using the book's techniques. There is a little discussion of why the techniques work but not as much as I would have liked. (Though a mathematician can of course see why most of them work pretty easily.)

The second half is a decent introduction to algebraic concepts but will be of little interest if you already know high school algebra. One thing I didn't like was the author encouraging solution of equations via the rule that an operation on one side becomes its inverse on the other -- this is correct but pupils can easily let it dominate their understanding.

Bottom line: if you want to improve your mental arithmetic or know a bright 10 to 14 year old then this book is well worth buying.

Suitable for children from 10-14 years of age. Adults who want to be able to do amazing feats of mathematics will benefit too. Learn to multiply numbers such as 98X87 or 996 X994 mentally. Work out the square of 125 in seconds. Children will be able to impress their parents and teachers! Learn how to do fractions, percentages, squares, square roots, cubes, cubic roots in hours rather than months or years! Algebra becomes less mysterious. When children can do number work and algebra they become more confident and begin to excel in other areas of mathematics.