Originally Posted by Kriston
It's about the method. Long division is one way to get the answer, but if you basically write the problem out in long division form in your head, then you're not using intuition because long division is a method taught to you, not one you would just come to on your own.

Yes, pretty much everyone can figure out 100/8 in their heads, I hope! smile The problem itself has nothing to do with intuition; it's just a way to check how you think about math.

Good, I was getting worried that he didn't expect people to calculate 100/8 in their heads smile Honestly it must be a really hard work to do it in your head the same way like you do it on the paper. I am not going to try to figure out how DS5 does it. I am afraid he could loose me somewhere in the middle grin

Originally Posted by Cathy A
It's not just painful, rote memorization takes a whole lot more effort (at least for me!) and is less "sticky" than understanding something. I think it's because when you just memorize you may learn a fact but it's just floating there in your brain, not connected to anything. It can be hard to retrieve that floating information. If I know how to reason something out it's like a trail of breadcrumbs to follow back to the memory. Each time I repeat the reasoning process it becomes easier to find and follow the breadcrumbs. If you think about something enough, the trail becomes like a superhighway leading straight to the answer.

I am the same way. I took heaps of math and computer classes and exams and it was such a relieve since I just had to get it so to speak. I didn't have to memorize it, as long as it made sense I was fine.

I hate when I have to memorize things, I don't usually see a point in doing that and the results show it.

LMom