MARBLES AND ARITHMETIC.

Shannon News, 3 April 1928, Page 3

MARBLES AND ARITHMETIC.

MASTER’S DISCOVERY. WHY MANY GIRLS ARE POOR CALCULATORS. One of the tilings that has made Great Britain the efficient commercial country that she is is playing marbles. For this reason: A boy who plays marbles must continually make lightning calculations.. -

This early association with figures is an invaluable foundation on which to build up mathematical ability. Girls are often bad at figures because when young they played with dolls instead of marbles.

This was explained to a Press Association representative by Mr A.. H. Russell, headmaster of East Bristol Central School, who caused a mild senastion among teachers of the National Gregg Association by demonstrating new methods of arithmetic that would, he said, make everyone a lightning calculator. Mr Russell has been called a ‘‘figure genius,” ‘‘datas,” ‘‘mathematician,” “the adding machine,” and other complimentary things. He is thought to be the world’s champion lightning calculator, and he agreed that he could probablv make quite a lot of money as a music hall “turn.” He is a younglooking man with a whimsical face and keen eyes, that are some index to the lightning brain behind them. ‘ ‘ Of course, any woman out shopping at the butchers should be able to tell in an instant that a joint weighing 51bs Bozs at Is per lb. is 7s 6£d,” he said. ‘‘Anyone should be able in a few seconds to say that 36,897 multiplied by 429 is 15,828,813.” These aud far bigger sums Mr Russell did instantly without a moment’s thought or any ‘ ‘ working out. ” “Take the arithmetic paper set out for the School Certificate Examination. v They give 1} hours to work it. Without exaggeration I can do it in 12 minutes.”

Here are some things anybody should be able to do mentally in five seconds by Mr Russell’s methods: Name the day of the week on which the Ist of May. 1485 fell. Give cost per lb. of goods sold at 37s 6d a ton. When you have 20 seconds in which to toy with a problem you should be able to multiply 56,837 by 2,469; square 74,326 in five seconds. Mr Russell can tell you the day of any date from the year 1 to 2000.

“Sometimes elderly men come to me to find out the day of the week on which they were born.” ‘ IN THE DARK.

All Mr Russell’s lightning methods were discovered while lying awake in bed in the dark, with no pencil or paper. “I used to suffer from sleeplessness, and I found that by working out these problems I gradually forgot the sleeplessness. By the time I had got the answer to say, 843,652 x 49,387, I felt so happy that I fell asleep. A few firms have asked me to devise for them lightning ways of dealing with points peculiar to their business. “Bristol Tramway Co., for instance, asked for a quick way of working out the price of so many 2£d tickets, and the clerks by using the method I gave them can now find the answer quicker than anyone can look up a book of calculations. “A young man using my methods could easily become twice as fast as I am. Youngsters come to me after being taught long cumbrous methods, and laugh when I do a few sums, but when I show them how, they come back delighted that they can multiply 83 x 47 and do in their heads such sums as 8534 x 4768.” Mr Russell pointed out how easy it was to imnress school inspectors. IPs methods include adding up two columns of figures at once instead of the usual one column, which, is often more than enough for some people. A division of fifteen figures should be done'in sixteen seconds, 'and Mr Russell explained that it was “impossible” to take more than twenty seconds. The Press representative, however, found it quite easy to take half an hour over it, but he beat Mr Russell, because he got six answers —all diffident.