A RUSSIAN CURIOSITY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2771, 14 August 1924, Page 4

A RUSSIAN CURIOSITY.

Five-sixths of the people in Russia are peasants, of whom some (it) per cent are illiterate, and the re.-t are very poor scholars. In certain parts the multiplied lion table is unknown beyond “twice time<," although the people can add correctly. Yet they are able to perform multiplication sums of a rather ad vanecd type hv following singular method. Suppose they wish to find the product, of 57 and St). Of lhei-e numbers it- does not mailer which is taken for a multiple or the other .as dividenod, though of course they are quite ignorant of these learned terms. Let us take 57 as tin- dividend. The peasant divides it by 2. ignoring remainders, as often as possible, and the other number he multiplies by as often as be divides the first, and sets the result down in two columns thus: — 57 S<) *2,8 173'* *1.4 35(1* 7 712 3 1424 1 28 I S He then strikes out those lines in which an even figure ends the dividend number —I tic figures noted )>v an asterisk in tin- i!in-t ration ol,ove —and adds up what is left in the multiplicand column. In this case the result is 5073. The method i- infallible, depending as it does upon an important mathematical principle. The mystery is how they got to find the dodge, or to the average person it would seem less remarkable to have the ability to learn the multiplication table than to acquire this elaborate device.