mooeypoo

You know, you might be able to find lessons online - either paid video lessons or from a school. Worth a try.. and it might be a lot simpler and more comfortable for you to work at this with a tutor that goes by your level rather than buying lots of books and do it yourself.

Yes, fractions and division/multiplication are an extension, of sorts, of addition. So they should come later. You seem to have a good basis for addition and subtraction, though. I'd get some practice on addition/subtraction and move on to multiplication and division.

Okay, this gives us a place to start Great! So "simple" adition seems to be easy. Okay, so division is a problem. We have a starting point [The answer, btw, is 50. The idea is to "divide" 100 to 2 equal parts = 50. 50+50=100, which means 50*2=100.] I see that this and the fourth one -- both dealing with fractions -- are problematic. That's another point we can work on. Great! that's the way to do it It's also a fairly easy way to do it in your head, it just requires a lot of practice. Your method is "left-to-right" (which means you are calculating the hundreds first, then continuing on towards the right side) which is easier to do in your head. Keep practicing on that one Right, fractions. Okay, so division and fractions (which are very close to one another) are a problem. Let me try and narrow the playing field a bit more.. if I asked you what 0.2 + 0.3 is equal to, is this difficult for you? Let me try and look up some basic tutorials for you, and think about where to start. I wouldn't be discouraged if I were you. For one, you're not 1st grade elementary school (you can add 3-digit numbers).

Let me ask you a practical question, and please don't take offense. I want to see what your level is, and - to be honest - I don't care about knowing the names of things. I come from a different country and didn't know the name of most math definitions either, that's the "easy" part to learn (you just read about them, basically). I want to know where you are in terms of actual math level, as opposed to where you migth think you are.. does that make sense? I want to write out a few relatively basic mathematical drills. Could you tell me (a) if you can do each? (b) how hard do you feel it is to do each? © how long, approximately, does it take you? And, yes, don't use a calculator You don't have to give me an answer to any of them, just tell me how hard you find each of them.. I'll have a better idea of where you are in your math skill.. 2 + 12 100 / 2 [math]\frac{2}{3} + \frac{4}{3}[/math] 124 + 102 [math]\frac{1}{3} * \frac{4}{2}[/math] I'll start with these, and might ask you further depending on your difficulty level. Please try to indicate how hard each of these questions are and if you think you can solve them. Don't be shy and don't take this personally -- we will just ahve a better understanding of where we need to start helping out when we know where you think your trouble is

You know, I saw you wrote that you are not interested in the "Tricks", but I think you should consider this book regardless: "Secrets of Mental Math" by Arthur Benjamin, Michael Shermer and a forward by Bill Nye (the science guy!) (http://www.flipkart.com/secrets-mental-math-arthur-benjamin/0307338401-htw3fsmkne) I am a physics student, and as one I need to know math quite well and it's very helpful to do some calculations in your mind. Though this book is called "tricks" in math, it's *explaining* those tricks, and giving you actual methods on how to practice on mental calculations (without a calculator, and when you're getting better at it, with practice, without a paper too). It's not cheating, it's learning methods of calculations that are making the process a bit easier. For example, one of the "tricks" is to calculate a double-digit number times 11. The "trick" is that the answer is a three-digit number that has the two digits around the sum of those digits. Like: 22x11=242 (2+2=4) 36x11=396 (3+6=9) 13x11=143 (1+3=4) And so on (gets a bit different when the sum is larger than 9 but I'll leave that for the book to explain In any case, my point is that the above "trick" is only a trick if you don't understand *WHY* this works. At the end of the book, the author(s) work out the method to explain why this happens, which makes you also understand how the process works. The byproduct is that you understand the process *AND* you can do it faster. If you are starting out with these things, you might as well start out with methods that will help you calculate the basics quicker for the next steps. The book is mainly dealing with basic math (pretty good methods about how to add and subtract large numbers or how to multiply 2-3 digit numbers). It's *pretty* basic but if you practice, you can learn the math while impressing people around you. Check this book out. Other than that, it's really about where to start.. there are many levels to maths, and for us to help you we will need a bit more information on what you are currently comfortable with. Good luck ~moo

ORIFIEL was automatically suspended for 3 days after excessively trolling the forum, ignoring the rules and posting multiple threads on the same subject.

The people who post in this thread are reminded that there is a serious "Hazardous Material" rule in SFN rule book. Posting instructions that can result in people potentially getting hurt or hurting others is not allowed in this forum. Please be advised that sodium is a hazardous material prone to violent reactions and any preparation of it is inherently dangerous. No preparation method is without severe hazards that range from property damage to blindness, and possibly death in the most extreme of circumstances.

Thank you.

<yoda> Short memory you have. </yoda> RESOURCE. Please! I couldn't find anything about this.

Thank you. Now PLEASE do that consistently. We are supposed to be a science forum with (AT LEAST) a basic requirement about what is and isn't a fact. And we are supposed to avoid plagiarism.

References!!!!!!!

I rest my case.

There's a difference between invisible and hard to see, or invisible and invisible to the naked eye, or invisible and see-through. Invisible is invisible, and its color doesn't matter. Because it's invisible.

Yes, please do, I know I've been joking and funny about this, but it really is annoying. We are a science forum, and as such, we have the requirements of a scientific thinking and refering, SPECIFICALLY in a thread like this. Please provide references to prove your tidbits, or don't post them at all. Beyond the fact that copy/paste without sourcing is plagiarism, if you post a statement that has no references, it might be a FALSE statement, in which case it should not be in the "Cool Facts" thread, but rather in the "I wonder if it's true" thread. ~moo

Since iNow pointed out moo's statistics in requesting references, moo has tried to bite her tongue 9 times. She's currently shaking, sweating and muttering uncontrollably. Sad, really. References, plea-- oh, the relief!

No offense to anyone, these are great facts, but I suggest that each post in the thread MUST have references, so it can (a) be properly verified and (b) so we can read more about it if needed.

uh.. WOW. References, please!

roflmao Freudian slip? I can't stand the company.. would you have ever guessed?

Yeah the hosting company had their servers malfunctioning. No worries, though -- all is bad to normal again!

Hey guys! I just wanted to let you know I have opened a new Facebook page for the SmarterThanThat project. Feel free (please!) to join in as fans and get regular updates on new and exciting changes that are coming up - as well as more and more and mooooore experiments! Here is is: http://www.facebook.com/pages/SmarterThanThatcom/30731268952 Yay! ~moo

Awesome. Who's my Guinea pig?

Here is your place to suggest more cool ideas for experiments, or for other cool phenomena that you would like me to demonstrate. If you think you have something too cool to share (surprise, perhaps?) you are also welcome to send me an email: experiments [at] smarterthanthat [dot] com And don't forget: When in Doubt, Try it Out!

Well I'm moo and I'm back! the feminine version of the geekoholics. Good to be back ~moo