Vedic Mathematics Lessons

I recently came across a book called ‘Vedic Mathematics’. I started reading it. Don’t ask me why. Because I don’t know.

Maybe its one of those psychological things. I’ve always been weak at mathematics. Particularly during the last years in school and during college. Add to that the catchy headline of the book:

VEDIC MATHEMATICS

OR

Sixteen simple Mathematical Formulae from the Vedas

(For One-line Answers to all Mathematical Problems)

Now that’s impressive ! One-line Ansers to ALL mathematical problems ? Really, for someone like me… its like finding Kryptonite ! Why didn’t I get hold of something like this during school days ?

One thing that really scared the shit out of me was the picture of the book’s author, which is on the first page of the book.

What I came to know for sure that this book is truly an ancient book. (The picture above obviously suggests so), and hence it is genuine.

Well, then I started reading this book. As I went on reading it, chapter after chapter, I realized how much at fault our system of primary education is. Really, the British Raj did so much damage to India economically, but the amount of damage they did to us intellectually is unfathomable. So much of ancient wisdom has been lost over the years, and that too, particularly in the last century. The present system of teaching mathematics seriously needs a revamp.

Throughout the book, the author takes care in pointing out the time / number of steps saved by following the Vedic method to solve a particular problem, in each case. Any major change in methodology requires a proof of effectiveness, and the author readily provides us the same at so many places in the book.

For example, lets say we want to multiply 321 by 213.

By following our regular procedure which is taught to us in school,

Huffffff …. So thats the answer. As it is clear, it takes 3 steps of multiplying a 3 digit number with a single digit and then addition of the 3 results to give the final result. In effect, it takes us 4 steps.

Now using the Vedic ऊर्ध्व तिर्यग्भ्याम्  (Urdhva Tiryagbhyam) sutra, (which simply means, “vertically and cross-wise”), starting from the right side,

Yes, it just takes one line of calculation… And all of it need only be mentally done. How did this happen? Well, as the method name suggests, it was obtained by multiplying the digits “vertically and crosswise”.

To get the right-most digit of the answer, multiply the two right-most digits 3 x 1 =  3 .

To get the second-last digit, multiply 2 x 3 and 1 x 1  (crosswise) and add them together, giving 6 + 1 = 7.

For the next digit, 3×3 + 2×1 + 1×2 = 3 with 1 carried over to the next step.

For the next digit, 3×1 + 2×2 + 1(carry) = 8.

Finally, the first digit 3 x 2 = 6.

Hmmm…. that looks quite simple… doesn’t it?  OK… I think if I were taught to multiply like this then I would have been much quicker in my calculations.

Ok guys… Till next time……