25 Math Short Cuts

Knowing how to calculate quickly, without the need of a calculator or pen and paper is a very useful skill. Whether you need to divide a dinner bill among friends, double a recipe, compute for a discount or commission, or figure out how many more pages of your textbook you have to read, knowing math shortcuts can make your life so much easier.

The book 25 Math Short Cuts: Practical Algebra “Tricks” for Everyday Use contains some of the most useful tips and techniques for use in everyday life and among the easiest to master. Read through the entire book at one sitting, or try mastering one shortcut a week.

The author, Virgilio “Ike” Y. Prudente, is a long-time math enthusiast and the creator of the MATH-Inic Program. He is coming out with his second book, Algebra Made Easy as Arithmetic, this December.

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I find this book “25 Math Short Cuts” very entertaining. I have been teaching Mechanical Engineering here in Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U) for 15 years. In an engineering school like ours, students are highly dependent on their calculators to compute even basic arithmetic operations. I always get the kick out of their amazement when I calculate mentally engineering formulas faster than they can get the answers in their calculators. Little do they know that the assumed values used in the formulas are special patterns (like complementary numbers and squaring numbers ending in 5). I never failed to impress them when I teach them some of the shortcuts I got from this book.

In my public seminars I always inject some of these shortcuts when we resume discussions after lunch break. They always jump back to life when I teach them multiplication near a base, division by 9 and multiplication of complementary numbers, among others.

Like me, I’m sure many students or seminar participants would find this book both interesting and entertaining. Congratulations to the author for this timely and useful book.

Emmanuel Nadela, BSEE, BSME, M. Eng. Ed

The love of mathematics has declined through the years. The way mathematics was taught in our elementary grades has won many enemies to this otherwise fun and easy subject – students, parents and even some math teachers. Mr. Virgilio Prudente has shownusthatmathematics,afterall,issomethingyoucanbeinlovewith. I recommend this book to all teachers at all levels.

Isaac Pitcairn Nemenzo Yap

I like your book, Ike — it’s packed with useful calculation methods, neat maths tricks and amusing anecdotes, and all explained in a fun and very readable style.

Good luck with it and all your other excellent endeavours.

Kenneth R. Williams