Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician's Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks

by Arthur T. Benjamin and Michael Shermer

Book Overview

Using proven techniques, this volume shows how to add, subtract, multiply and divide faster than is possible with a calculator or pencil and paper, and helps readers conquer their nervousness about... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307338401
• ISBN13: 9780307338402
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Great for SAT/GRE study!

I am a professional SAT/GRE teacher and tutor, achieving an 800 in the GRE math section. After telling many students that the secret to the math section is mental math and approximation, I decided to see what books were available. I saw that this one had good reviews and ever since then I have been bringing the book to all my classes and tutoring sessions. I recommend this book for those who never felt they got the hang of math as well as people who love it like I do. It is clearly written, very encouraging and has lots of drills. I love this book and I think that it really will help people feel more confident when they take a test or just are trying to figure the tip.

Entertaining book with very good learning value

Loved this book... it is very entertaining and teaches a lot of good concepts. A lot of the techniques are not original. But they have been put together very nicely in this book. I bought the other book by Arthur on the same topic (Mathemagics: How to Look Like a Genius Without Really Trying ) and found that a very good addition to my math books. The current book is a much enhanced and cleaned up version of that. I do part time teaching on Math to High School students and use this book for some good ideas... While the author seems to be a very good "stage mathematician" and a lot of his explanations try to explain the "show" aspect of the tricks, for a more complete collection of math tricks, I also refer to book by Meyer. Very recommneded for Math enthusiasts and more for High School students.

it makes math fun again!

My daughter had always loved math but from last year she became bored by the math curriculum her school uses. I purchased this book and after only four chapters she's engrossed in math again! She loves the tricks and voluntarily makes up her own problems to solve. She's already seeing how the techniques help her in her normal math work. She is now probably the top math student in her class. In the Beestar online math tests [...], she is ranked high in the honor roll. I'm very pleased with this book. It makes math fun to my daughter again!

Right to the point, effective, and fun!

At first glance, this book could easily be overlooked and dismissed as another "just buy this book and follow my easy steps to becoming a (genius, millionaire, happier person, psychic, master gardener, whatever)" that would utimately leave you disappointed that you couldn't do it. Well, this book is not that. It gets right to the point. It's very well written. It's fun. It's practical. And as long as you take your time to mentally practice what you're learning along the way, you can and should be able to master the techniques in this book. You needn't have any mathematical expertise going in. Of course, the author doesn't promise anything special about what you can do with these abilities, although there are some practical applications suggested along the way. All I can say is that it's fun and gives you something interesting to do with your brain when you're bored. And certainly if you like Math already or are a Math teacher, it can be tremendously helpful. Arthur Benjamin wrote the main content of the book, and Michael Shermer (Skeptic Magazine founder and Scientific American columnist) wrote introductory and closing chapters. These seem a little out of place to me, but they're certainly very good and useful general information about critical thinking. In addition to Bill Nye's (The Science Guy) new intro, James Randi's (famous magician and skeptic) introduction from an earlier edition is included.