Trachtenberg System

Trachtenberg System

The Trachtenberg System is a system of rapid mental calculation. The system consists of a number of readily memorized operations that allow one to perform arithmetic computations very quickly. It was developed by the Russian Jewish engineer Jakow Trachtenberg in order to keep his mind occupied while being held in a Nazi concentration camp. The rest of this article presents some of the methods devised by Trachtenberg. The most important algorithms are the ones for general multiplication, division and addition. Also, the Trachtenberg system includes some specialized methods for multiplying small numbers between 5 and 13.

The chapter on addition demonstrates an effective method of checking calculations that can also be applied to multiplication.

Read more about Trachtenberg System:  General Multiplication, General Division, General Addition, Other Multiplication Algorithms, Publications, Other Systems

Famous quotes containing the word system:

    When the finishing stroke was put to his work, it suddenly expanded before the eyes of the astonished artist into the fairest of all the creations of Brahma. He had made a new system in making a staff, a world with full and fair proportions; in which, though the old cities and dynasties had passed away, fairer and more glorious ones had taken their places.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)