What is the square root of 12,345,678,987,654,321?

That is a great question!

That is a great question!

The guy running the trivia thing was surprised that five groups got it right.

I wonder how common long multiplication is these days. They still teach it in schools, right? Although I suppose most kids pull out their calculators and promptly forget it.

When I was in HS, somewhere I read about the pattern that 1² = 1, 11² = 121, 111² = 12321, etc. I can't remember where I read that - perhaps in a book of math stuff I read on my own....

They still teach it in schools. From what I've seen, most of the schools that know what they're doing will allow elementary-school kids to use calculators for certain activities, but will still also have them learn to do arthmetic without them. Middle school and high school will allow calculators a lot more. (And I usually end up with a whole bunch of undergrads who are terrified to do even basic calculations without a calculator. They know how to do it, but they just don't trust that a non-calculator answer will be right and they'll panic and say "I can't do this." I haven't noticed the same thing in elementary and middle school kids, though.)

I just sent out an email to the Midwest list about plans for tomorrow.

I'm not on the list, so you'll have to cc: me.

Damn, that's a cool math problem.

When I was in HS, somewhere I read about the pattern that 1² = 1, 11² = 121, 111² = 12321, etc. I can't remember where I read that - perhaps in a book of math stuff I read on my own....

They still teach it in schools.

Well, shoo. Either they never taught it at mine, or (more likely) one of my higher-math teachers mentioned it during one of the classes when I was sitting in the back crying and feeling stupid and I never heard it, which just makes me sad because it's exactly the kind of absurd/logical frickin' coolness that would've gotten me all hopped up and excited about math again.

ION, San Francisco is bright and sunshiney -- but barren, barren, I say. For some reason, the lack of Scola is hitting especially hard this morning.

When I was in HS, somewhere I read about the pattern that 1² = 1, 11² = 121, 111² = 12321, etc.

For me, it's cool because you can picture it visually doing long multiplication -- each rows of 1's shifted one to the left from the row above it.

I'm not on the list, so you'll have to cc: me.

Done!

Also, is there anyone who could meet up with Tom to help him get to my place? Brenda? tommyrot?

Sorry I can't give rides to the downtown-istas today!

ChiKat, do you want me to bring sweet munchies for dessert? I need to get some things at Jewel tonight for the apartment, and was thinking about throwing some of their brownies in the cart, as well.