Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1886 — ARITHMETIC’S MISSING LINE. [ARTICLE]

ARITHMETIC’S MISSING LINE.

A New Fractlonaltle Table for Solving Problems Without a Pencil. A little wrinkled man, with an eager ,air, sat in a plumber’s shop -working out problems in mental arithmetic. The plumbers regard him as a wonderful mathematician, and he can cipher out the most involved combination of figures in a very short time. ’ He is Moses T. Williams, of No- 16 King, street, and lie claims to have invented anew fractional table, whioh he calls the missing arithmetical link, and which he holds to be a long advance in the science of numbers. He rarely finds a pencil necessary to work, and either has a prodigious memory or arrives at his results by intuition. Hw system is based on the mechanical value of the single vulgar fractions of this 10 or anv denomination commencing with one and ending with fractions. He holds that a man who has learned by heart all the single vulgar fractions of class has an instrument at his fingerends which will enable him to master almost any arithmetical problem which is properly applied. For example: A tailor has 150 yards of cloth, and wants to know how many pairs of trousers, of 24 yards each, he can get out of the piece. The ordinary way of finding the result of this simple problem would l»e to reduce the 21 to 2.5 and with it divide 150, giving 60. But Mr. Williams argues : If each pair of trousers needed ten yards the 150 yards would allow fifteen pairs. Instead each pair needs but 24 yards, which is one-fourth of ten yards. Therefore the number t>f trousers to be got out of the piece at 2i yards to the pair will be four times the Dumber possible at ten yards to the pair—or 60 pairs. Again; - How many gallons of water will be held in a tank 18 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 5 feet deep V Remembering that 37 j is $ of 100, and reducing to equal denominations the answer, 6,732 36-77 gallons, is reached very expeditiously. The following table Mr. Williams would have the rising generation cut out aud paste in their hat: 10 is 10 times 1 10 is 6 3-3 times 1 1-2 10 is 5 times 2 10 is 4 times 2 1-2 10 is 3 1- 3 times. 3 10 is 2 1-2 times' 4 • v ■ 10 is 2 times 5 10 is 12-3 times 6 10 is 13-7 times 7 10 is 11-3 times 7 1-2 10 Is 11-4 times 8 10 •is 11-5 times 8 1-3 10 is 1 1- 9 times 9 10 is ,1 times 10 10 is >%ll times 11 % 10 is 5-6 times 12 10 is 5-7 times 14 10 is 2- 3 times 15 10 is 5- 8 times 16 • -30 is 5-16 times 33