Tuesday 9 December, 2008

Think without ink



வணக்கம்!


...

"இந்த உருளை எவ்வளவு?"

"ஒரு கிலோ ரூ.9.50 "

" இது ரொம்ப ஜாஸ்தி. முக்கால் கிலோ ரூ.6.50 க்கு தாங்க"

...

"ரெண்டு ஈரல் கொடுங்க"

"350 கி இருக்கு. 49 ரூபாய் கொடுங்க"

...

" 7 தேங்காய் 10 ரூபாய்"

"6 ரூபாய்க்கு 5 தேங்காய் தாங்க "

"அது கட்டாது மா . 8 தேங்காய் 10 ரூபாய் க்கு வாங்கிக்கோங்க"

...
These are the magical words which I heard it in my school days. Before realising whether the deal is good, my mom would have returned home after purchasing everything!

Calculating the market value of the land is one among the discussion which I never liked. My uncle is a king in this. He say that so much feet length and so much feet breadth. He calculates the total area and subtracting the area which are going for the public road. He further moves on to give the market value of land.
I wonder how these people are able to calculate such complex things without using pen and paper. Infact, they love to work out these without using pen and paper.

Then, I tried to work out such problems like these people during my college days. It was like doing meditation for 2 hours. In the dark night when no external sound is disturbing, I close my room and sit on the floor and close my eyes (for concentration !). Slowly I bring out the blackboard in my mind and start solving the problem. To solve the simple problem, it took me around 30 minutes whereas using pen and paper I could able to solve it minutes. Sometimes, I was able to be in deep concentration for hours to solve the problem, finally got up early in the morning and realised I really slept off.
Then, I decided that some problem was there in my preparation.

What went wrong in me? Infact, I was jealous at my uncles and aunts. Only console was my friends,who are like me.

I went back to my school days. I was studying 5th standard. In every winter and summer vacation, we go to our grandpa's house. There we play தாயம் . By considering, all other 3 opponents' position one has to decide which number is good for him (though getting that particular number is not his hand!) I have never taken more than a minute to think. Infact, nobody consider that even this game improves your aptitude skills. Infact, no need to calculate so much before putting the dice. But, everyone do the calculation!
And the next game is பல்லாங்குழி! One has to decide from which container he has to take the coins, so that he ends up with gaining something. In software terms, it involves dynamic allocation/de allocation of memory that keeps on varying in each move! (it's so complex that even I don't understand!)

So, what I conclude is that I was very good at solving puzzles in my 5th standard.

Then, coming to 6th standard. My brother was studying 10th standard. His daily activity in the evening was studying the subjects. And my daily activity was disturbing him from studying! Sometimes, he reports to our mom. Sometimes, he shifts to some other place. Sometimes, he gives me some mathematical problems (from 10th standard) to stop me.

"1,4,9,16,25... fill the series"

And he started continuing his studies. I took his note book which is for rough work and his pen. Started solving the problem!
After half an hour, the gave the answer.

"36, 49"

He was surprised to hear this. he asked for another two numbers.
I took another ten to fifteen minutes.
"64,81"
This time, I had big doubt. I asked my brother how did he set the question so quickly without thinking or using pen and paper, whereas I took more than half an hour.
Then, he asked me how did I solve the problem.

1
4 (+3)
9 (+5)
16 (+7)
25 (+9)
36 (+11)
49 (+13)
64 (+15)
and so on.

Here, you may appreciate me. But see the difference. Till fifth standard, I was able to solve the problem using mind calculations. In sixth standard, I could able to solve the problems by writing it down. May be because I was curious in writing using pen particularly. (Note: Till 5th standard, using pen is not mandatory. One can use pencil also. In High school, it is mandatory to write using pen)

Ok...coming back to our old story.

From 7th standard lot of new subjects I started learning.
Algebra, Calculus, Probability, statistics to name few.
These are new and interesting concepts. yes, I agree. Instead these topics concentrated more on formulas than the concepts. In every chapter, there would be minimum ten formulas. Just think...having 10 chapters in one subject from seventh till 12th. you are ended with mugging up around 600 formulas.

Finally,in 12th annual exam,
"If you are tossing the coin, what would be the probability of getting tail? - 2 marks"
" Total number of sides = 2
Space=S={HEAD,TAIL}
n(S)=2
Expected event=A={HEAD}
n(A)=1
P(A)=n(A)/n(S)=1/2=0.5 "

1 comment:

சேரலாதன் பாலசுப்பிரமணியன் said...

Welcome to Blog daa nanba. I hope we would get some good things from you.