Posted on 08/11/2009 7:48:27 AM PDT by rawhide
A North Carolina man who allegedly cracked the code to mentally calculate any multiplication problem is now offering to reveal his secret - for the bargain price of $33.
Albert Clay said he came up with his system as a high school junior, but never showed anyone aside from a high school math teacher who shrugged off the achievement, the News & Observer reported.
Now 75 years old, the retired pharmacist has copyrighted the formula, "How to Multiply Any Number by Any Number in Your Head," and hopes to demonstrate it in schools, books or even personal mailings to anyone who'll send him $33, including postage, the paper reported.
"There may not be anybody else in the world who knows how to do this but me," Clay, told the News & Observer. "Zip, zip, zap and add 'em together."
True to his word, Clay multiplied a pair of five-digit numbers in just seconds and wrote the answer on a single line of his yellow scratch pad, News & Observer reported. No calculator. No zig-zagging numbers cluttering the page
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Definitely. Definitely 33 dollars in his bank account.
What’s the frequency, Kenneth?
“Zip, zip, zap and add ‘em together.”
(Where’s my $33?)
AAAA x BBBB = CCCC
My father, born in 1896, with only an 8th grade education could do that. He never told me how he did it but, at the time, I wasn’t interested.
I believe I read how it is done in a book called Math Tricks.
Easy.
$33.00 x 1 sucker born every minute = $1,000,000.00
Develop a matrix.
Cross Multiply.
Add.
It’s easy.
It’s easier to buy a calculator.
It’s easiest to estimate.
They could've ended the headline right there.
LOL. My laugh for the day for sure. $33 x Y suckers = Laughing all the way to the bank.
I was thinking the same thing.
Right or Loony? I don’t know (it’s a false dicotomy), but I know you’re incorrect by 295,734,350 (as determined by my Monroe 8125 calculator!).
did you know that any number multiplied by 999 is 999 by adding up the separate digits?
Example: 999 * 2009 = 2,006,991.00
2+6+991 = 999!
Much to his dismay, he's about to discover that copyright protects the expression but not the idea...
Well, 4000 x 10000 = 40,000,000. Your answer is 329,000,000+, so I’d say you’re off by an order of magnitude.
999 x 777= 776223
776+223=999
You’re right. Neat.
999 x 458956= 458497044
458+497+044=999
15 X 15 = 1 X 2, (first digits) and 5 X 5 = 25. therefore 15 X 15 = 225.
45 X 45 = (4X5=20) and (5X5=25) so 45X45=2025.
Other numbers work as well. For example 33 X 33= (33+3=36X3=108) and (3X3=9)so 33X33=1089! TA DAH
Today I use Excel, Cell Phone and other electronic devices which are as accurate and cost less than $33 for the "copyrighted formula"!
ping
Clay's method is best explained on paper. Suffice it to say you multiply the digits on the right, cross-multiply and add the digits in the center, then multiply the digits on the left.
Not a particularly novel concept to me. You will still need a highly nimble [read: regularly exercised] memory to accomplish the calculation in your head, and alas, there's no silver bullet magic trick in that, just regular practice.
Darnit! I would have been willing to pay the $33 just to be able to show off, too, but I'm not parting with the cash if his 'trick' means I also have to give up my well-earned trademarked mental laziness.
AD! Pick up the White Courtesy phone, please.
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