Issue 116 - The Tigers Nest

Vedic Mathematics Newsletter No. 116

A warm welcome to our new subscribers.


This issue’s article (at the end of the newsletter) is an account of a recently published book ‘The Tiger’s Nest’ that combines Vedic Mathematics with an exciting story for kids.

“We have tried to make the student develop deeper thinking on various topics related to multiplication including summation of series, permutations & combinations, and areas and volumes….


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NEWS
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2nd VM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN DELHI

This is on 27-29th December 2107.
Last year’s conference was in Kolkata and was a great success.
For more details and to register see here:
http://instituteavm.wixsite.com/ivm2017


INTERNATIONAL VM CONFERENCE - OCTOBER 2017
The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), with about 4 million students, may well be the largest university in the world. It specialises in distance learning and includes students not only in India but also many other countries. It was thus a privilege for the IAVM to be invited to organise a section of their conference. The IGNOU conference in October was held at one of their regional centres, Ahmedabad.
The involvement of IAVM only came to fruition two months before the event and so presentations were, for the most part, taken from previously published papers and conferences.
Introduction
In the presence of Prof. Ravindra Kumar, the Vice Chancellor of IGNOU, Swati Dave gave an introduction to the conference with a brief description of what is Vedic Maths. She also described the global nature of interest and work as well as pointing out various courses now available in India.
Round-Table Discussion
The conclusion to the conference consisted of a round-table discussion focussing on a request from IGNOU to produce a three-module course of 12 credits for their distance learning programme. IAVM associates will be working on this over the next few weeks and will then submit a proposal to IGNOU for due consideration. We all hope this project will move forward and help with the growth and expansion of VM in mainstream education.
The conference was deemed to be a great success with smiles and happy faces all round and a determined enthusiasm to work towards further expansion of VM in education.
A fuller description and some photos of the event can be seen at http://www.instavm.org/ignou-conference-10-2017



JAPANESE EDITION OF ELEMENTARY MANUAL AVAILABLE AT AMAZON

We are delighted to announce that this publication is now available:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4909452001

Many thanks to Sudha Deepika and Sivaram Pusapati for all the efforts that went into making this happen.



ARTICLE ON DIVISIBILITY BY PRIME NUMBERS – by Vinay Nair

This excellent article shows the easy Vedic divisibility method which was published in the emagazine ‘At Right Angles’. You can see it here:
http://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/SitePages/resources-at-right-angles-august-2017.aspx



STUDENT BEATS PROFESSOR WITH VEDIC MATH

Yesterday my daughter attended class and asked the professor to provide answers to some of the problems [on polynomial division] in the book, which did not come with answers shown. She wanted to practice additional problems to make sure she had things right. The professor decided he would work out the problems right in front of the class. My daughter was finished before he had the second term down, and was happy to see that he eventually got the answer she had. He then said it would take too long to do them in class and he’d provide the answers later online.
From Alison Lee, USA



16 MULTIPLICATION DEVICES VIDEO

This was presented by Ken Williams at the recent Ahmedabad conference and shows how each of the 16 Sutras of Vedic Mathematics can be used in multiplication. See:
http://www.vedicmaths.org/community/research
(under item 6)



ASTRONOMY COURSE STARTS 20TH NOVEMBER 2017

This is a 3-week course by Kenneth Williams which introduces the subject and shows how to easily locate planets at any time and for any observer on the Earth. See details:
http://courses.vedicmaths.org/Astronomy_Course.html

This is the last course of the year.
For details of 2018 courses see: http://courses.vedicmaths.org/



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ARTICLE FOR NEWSLETTER 116
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Article on Vedic Math from the authors of ‘The Tiger’s Nest’ 11th Oct 2107

What Vedic Math means to us and why we wrote the book ‘The Tiger’s Nest’

The Vedas house temporal and eternal truths. But how were they arrived at? The authors of ‘The Tiger’s Nest’ feel the name 'Vedas' itself contains the clue:

Vedas = Ve(go) Deep And Simple.

For those who grew up with the TV show Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, this should sound familiar.

In today's world, we are often in a rush to learn things to help advance our goals, or teach things in order to quickly establish a reputation.

However, knowledge gained in this manner, more often than not, does not lead to wisdom. One needs to slow down, concentrate and play with concepts before true wisdom is gained that will benefit the most in the long run.

The authors feel Vedic Math is a wonderful vehicle to exemplify going deep and simple. Students studying these approaches will clearly see how deep thought on even the simplest mathematical concepts can result in powerful insights and simplifications.

As Leonardo Da Vinci said - the height of sophistication is simplicity.

In order to ask people to slow down and focus on quality vs quantity requires some degree of selflessness and noble inclinations on their part.

Keeping this in mind, and wanting to help educate young minds with these values, the authors decided to a write a special book on Vedic Math. It would be in the form of a fun story stressing noble qualities, and would also present math in an engaging manner that would encourage deeper thinking. Three and a half years of work followed that resulted in the book 'Math Kids: The Tiger's Nest' which was released this year and is available on Amazon for $2.99.

Below are some examples from the book that we would like to share so readers can get a better idea of our approach.

Example 1. Most elementary schoolers are taught the simple trick of squaring two-digit numbers ending in 5:  25 x 25 = 625 since 2x3 = 6 and 5x5 = 25.
But there the enquiry stops. Students are not urged to see that this similar concept can also be applied to 23 x 27 = 621.
Or for that matter, for all the following variants: 32 x 72, 37 x 22, and 73 x 22.
In our book, by indicating this link, we try to encourage deeper thinking.

Example 2. Elementary schoolers are taught the divisibility rule for 3: if the sum of digits of a number is divisible by 3, so is the number. However, why this works is never shown, and students are not encouraged to discover rules for other numbers such as 7.
In this book, not only do we lead the student into this line of thinking but also show how the rules can get simplified in different number systems. For example, in the dozenal system, a number ending in 0, 3, 6 or 9 is divisible by 3.

We have tried to make the student develop deeper thinking on various topics related to multiplication including summation of series, permutations & combinations, and areas and volumes.

All of this we try to teach through a story stressing noble values. Here is an excerpt from the prologue:
 
“Enough delay! Hand me the mind stone, kids, and you won’t get hurt,” Teninone said. The Demon King had been desperately seeking the mind stone for years. With it, he could bend minds to his will.
The four kids stood quietly in Teninone’s Royal Hall; unafraid, though surrounded by demon soldiers.
Teninone surveyed the kids’ faces to see which one would be most likely to talk. It could be the little girl, Matya, with the funny eyes; or maybe the older girl, Maya, who seemed persuadable. Could it be the older boy, Pratham, their spokesperson? But it was the younger boy, Thulo, who spoke up first.
“Telephone, you don’t scare us! You don’t deserve the mind stone and you will never get it,” Thulo said. This was definitely not what the Demon King wanted to hear.
General Greymon hissed at Thulo, “Say our leader’s name with respect. He is Lord Teninone. ”
Thulo retorted, “He is unworthy of any title. In fact, he should be called the Brainless Gnome.”
Teninone seethed. “Impudent kid. You don’t know my power! Do you know what Teninone means? It means Ten-in-one! I have ten clones. We see, think, and do ten things at once—”
“And make ten times the mess,” ten-year-old Pratham now added calmly. Then, turning to the soldiers, he said, “Evil always has an end, and your ruler’s end is near. Leave him now and save yourselves.”
Teninone was enraged but knew that if he killed the kids he might never find the mind stone.  The mind stone was visible only to its owner and to whomever it was passed.


We hope readers of the article would be interested in getting a copy of our book to read to their younger friends and family and provide feedback to help us with our future work.

Thanks,
Payal & Kaustava,
Portland, OR, USA.


End of article.
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Your comments about this Newsletter are invited.
If you would like to send us details about your work or submit an article or details about a course/talk etc. for inclusion, please let us know on

Previous issues of this Newsletter can be viewed and copied from the Web Site: http://www.vedicmaths.org/community/newsletter

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Editor: Kenneth Williams

The Vedic Mathematics web site is at: http://www.vedicmaths.org
mailto:

11th November 2017

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