Article 91335 of alt.sysadmin.recovery: From: art@flying.broomstick.com (Arthur Hagen) Newsgroups: alt.sysadmin.recovery Subject: Re: I do not like stupidity. Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 00:08:15 +0200 Organization: Broomstick Net Services Lines: 61 Approved: uhrm Message-ID: References: <6vgar5$2t4$1@nnrp03.primenet.com> <1180.586T322T3582979@mistral.co.uk> Reply-To: art@broomstick.com NNTP-Posting-Host: flying.broomstick.com Path: news1.meer.net!nntp2.ba.best.com!news3.best.com!news1.best.com!nntprelay.mathworks.com!btnet-peer!btnet!news-lond.gip.net!news-stkh.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!globalone.no!flying!art Xref: news1.meer.net alt.sysadmin.recovery:91335 In article <1180.586T322T3582979@mistral.co.uk>, "Adam Atkinson" writes: > The Italian way for doing long multiplication or long division (can't > remember which) looks nothing like the way I do it. This has led to > problems when I've had to do calculations on blackboards in Italy. > Either my audience says "What on earth is all that?" or I try to > struggle through the Italian way of laying it all out and get myself > into a mess. Probably division. Here in Norway, people have been taught to do that in at least 4 different ways, which of two still are taught in school. To divide 1773 by 30, you do either of: 59,1 +----- 30 | 1773 ---+ 150 --- 273 270 --- 30 30 -- 0 or 1773 : 30 1500 50 ---- 273 270 9 --- 3 3 0.1 - ---- 0 59.1 ==== or 1773 : 30 (scribble, scribble, guesswork, scribble goes here) -------- (and here) 59,1 (and here) ======== (and here) or 1773 1773-50*30 273 273-9*30 3 1 ---- = 50 + ---------- = 50 + --- = 59 + -------- = 59 + -- = 59 -- 30 30 30 30 30 10 I tend to prefer the top one, as it deals with smaller numbers, although it wastes paper. Regards, -- *Art