Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician's Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks Paperback – Illustrated, August 8, 2006

I’ve read through the whole book contents solving all the problems along the way. It took me a day or so in total, but it’s worth spending a large amount of time on it now that I’ve known the everlasting value this book offers.What I find most valuable about it is that my basic numerical processing speed has accelerated through all those math problems with some tips sprinkled around. 5-by-5 multiplication problems are still hard for me to do mental calculation, but up to 3-by-3 ones, I’m getting the hang of it.Other than that, I’ve learnt what “think from multiple perspectives” truly means. Comparing myself before and after reading this book, I’ve come to think of various approaches to a single math problem, not only arithmetic ones, but also those in college entrance exams. In this sense, I would say math skills gained from this book could also be applied to more larger math contexts.By the way, this book reminded me that I’d bought another mental calculation book written in Japanese (more precisely written in English and translated into Japanese though) a few years ago, and I looked around my book shelf and found it. The book title is, “Anki no Tatsujin”, and the author is… “Arthur Benjamin and Michael Shermer” (?!)Maybe I was destined to read this book sooner or later…

Often need figures at work, and this is a pretty much fun way to become really quick in calculaiton.

Arthur Benjamin, likely the greatest mental math number cruncher who is not a savant, shares his techniques in this book, a priceless resource to the upper elementary or higher Mathematics teacher or to any person who wants to exercise and sharpen their mathematical mind.This very user-friendly book takes the reader step-by-step through the methodologies successfully employed by mathemagician Arthur Benjamin, professor at Harvey Mudd College, to accurately perform complex math calculations without the use of pencil and paper. Professor Benjamin teaches his unique approach to mental math, an approach that even a Grade Five child may master with practice.If you do not know about Arthur Benjamin just Google him and add mathemagician. The interested teacher may also find excellent DVD content on Arthur Benjamin and his love of math and methods of mental math at The Teaching Company.