The Secrets of Mental Math

The fundamental strategies of mental arithmetic; the value of adding from left to right, unlike what one does on paper; discovering how a variety of shortcuts hold the keys to rapidly solving basic multiplication problems; finding squares.

Professor Benjamin demonstrates how easily one can mentally add and subtract one, two, and three-digit numbers; shortcuts using the complement of a number; the uses of mental addition and subtraction for quickly counting calories and making change.

The secrets of easy mental multiplication; mastering how to quickly multiply any two-digit or three-digit number by a one-digit number; learning the most fundamental operations of mental multiplication; a vital tool to one's mental math tool kit.

A fundamental operation of arithmetic, division; exploring shortcuts for dividing by one and two-digit numbers; how to convert fractions such as 1/7 and 3/16 into decimals; determining when a large number is divisible by numbers such as 3, 7, and 11.

Real-world situations such as figuring out sales tax or how much to tip; one does not need an exact answer but just a fair approximation; developing skills for effectively estimating addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and square roots.

Sometimes one encounters math problems on paper in their daily lives; there are some rarely taught techniques to help speed up one's calculations; checking answers when one is adding tall columns of numbers and multiplying numbers of any length.