Monday 16th November 2009
by CarolineWhen you have downtime, what do you do?
Five Favorite Timekillers:
1. Doodling
2. NYT crosswords online
3. Nanaca Crash! or Text Twist
4. Thinking of trivia questions
5. Math
Yeah, that’s right. Math. I have a reputation as something of a word nerd, which is completely true, but no, I don’t sit around and invent things to copy edit or think judgmental thoughts about other people’s grammar. Making corrections in a vacuum is unsatisfying; the good stuff comes when someone asks you for help as they write an essay or a resume or other actual product, and you can help that person more accurately portray him- or herself.
But you know what always hits the spot? Long division.
Here’s one I just did.
1623988872 ÷ 2 = 811994436
811994436 ÷ 2 = 405997218
405997218 ÷ 2 = 202998609
202998609 ÷ 3 = 37666203
37666203 ÷ 3 = 12555401
12555401 ÷ 17 = 738553 and . . .
738553 is a PRIME.
For more on division, you may want to check out Dr Math’s reference list of divisibility rules. He does 11 a different way than I learned, but as long as it works, right?
one response
Aaah, crosswords! Used to hate em, now I love em.
As for TextTwist- that game is addictive. Husband and I made it a goal to get to 1 million points. We did it once as a team and then he did it once solo.