Vedic Mathematics
25 03 2007I’ve been reading up vedic maths the last few weeks and its an absolutely fascinating topic. It basically consists of 16 formulae as written down in age-old sutra’s of India and allows for very easy mental calculation of complex division, multiplication, square roots etc.
Just a few basic examples to whet your appetite:
Multiply a two-figure number by 11
This couldn’t be easier — you simply put the sum of the first and last figure inbetween.72 x 11 = 7 (7+2) 2 = 792
If the sum of the two figures is greater than 9 you simply carry the first figure of the sum and add it to to first figure of your number.
79 x 11 = 7 (7+9) 9 = 7 (16) 9 = 869
Dividing by 9
Here the answer for a two-figure number is the first figure as the result and the sum of the two figures the remainder.23 / 9
result 2
remainder 2+3 = 5For dividing three-figure numbers you need to add the sum of the first two numbers to the first figure and the total sum of the three numbers is your remainder.
134 / 9
result 1 (1+3) = 14
remainder (1+3+4) = 8
It is amazing to how these simple rules work and have noticed myself using some of them for quick multiplication etc. The only problem I often have is remembering what exact rule to use in what situation 
If I’d been taught basic maths using these techniques I definitely would’ve found it a lot more interesting — just rediscovered the hidden beauty in numbers.
If you want to read up on it some more and take some interactive tutorials vedicmaths.org is a good place to start.
That’s some pretty cool stuff. The elegant multiplication pattern is amazing; that will come in handy for sure.
Hey Peter - thanks for the pointer: as you say absolutely fascinating stuff. Did you catch the “In Our Time” (BBC Radio 4) podcast on Indian mathematics? Amazing stuff, and wonderful to see how Revealed Theology doesn’t necessarily imply the dogmatism that leads to insanities like Creationism. You can find it here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20061214.shtml
Btw - In the spirit of sharing information - as opposed to criticism, since your English is brilliant and my Flemish non-existent - the phrase is to “whet” one’s appetite, in the same way a whet-stone is used to sharpen a blade.
Thanks for that interesting link and pointing out my typo Oliver.
Hello!
Nice article on Vedic Maths.
Why dont you check this blog on thesubject.
it has some amazing videos and some slide shows.
http://vedicmathsindia.blogspot.com
Thanks
GAurav
ah, casting out nines. Also useful for determining if a number is div by 9 or 3. If (sum of digits) mod 9 == 0 then the number is div by 9.
Interesting stuff this though, never ran across this in my History of Math class.
DK
Fascinating I agree.
Followed some links from wikipedia to find some interesting critisicm.
http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/NoVedic.html
http://www.tifr.res.in/~vahia/dani-vmsm.pdf
Hi Peter,
A Very Informative article on Vedic Math. I came across a website which has very nice slide shows and tutorials in their tutorials section. http://www.vedicmathsindia.org
In its History section it mentions that the sutras of vedic math is indeed authentic and from the scriptures. It mentiones the sources clearly. Why dont u check it out.
http://www.vedicmathsindia.org
I have this site on my book-marks.. Allows you to do a lot of practicing.
http://www.articlestonurture.com/mental-math.html
Hey all,
I absolutely love vedic maths and it’s great to meet other like minded individuals on the topic.
I have some free maths videos I created on my site that use Vedic Maths and thought it might be an idea to share them with you:
They are here: http://vedic-maths-videos.com
I hope you find them useful!
Kevin
Good to see your interest in this subject. I have started a 10 day workshop on Vedic mathematics for students from 5th to 10th grade. The response of the kids is amazing. Its good we enable future generations with these methods
Here is another wonderful math website on Vedic Maths that will help us instantly power-up the math muscle.
It has put the vedic Math tricks in easy to watch 5 minute videos. Within minutes you would be calculating faster than the speeding calculator.
See it, to believe it ….
Fast mental Math tricks n techniques ( secret ) to end daily mental math problems. Fun Mental Math for kids. Vedic Mathematics tricks website with math videos