From: venks@stable.ecn.purdue.edu (Kareenhalli V Venkatesh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Vedic Math
Date: 11 Apr 92 16:00:39 GMT
Article-I.D.: noose.1992Apr11.160039.16303
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network

In article <1992Apr11.090106.11701@wpi.WPI.EDU> udumudi@maxine.wpi.edu (u v babu srinivas) writes:
>In his article <> vijay@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu (Vijay Fafat) writes:
>=> 
>=>     I had read a few pages of this book at IIT(B). The author of the 
>=> book is one Mr. Shankaracharya. The book had some really fundoo methods
>=> for divison, multiplication,root-extraction,etc. It also gave the 
>=> original Sanskrit verses which described the method.
>
>I read the book when I was in Intermediate II yr. It's a great book
>and was just a part of the real vedic mathematics book (which the
>book said was lost or something..). It had many short cut methods
>for finding roots, multiplication, division, polynomial division, etc.
>
>It describes many short cut methods for transforming ordinary 
>mutiplications into special cases for which easier methods exist..
>
>He quotes 16 small slokas (one line) on which the whole system 
>is defined. Applying these slokas (methods, actually) one can do
>any calculation easily and much faster (and in mind).
>
>It had a notation for numbers in sanskrit syllables. At the end it 
>quotes a verse in praise of krishna which translated into numbers
>using the above system turns out to be the value of pi upto 32
>digits after decimal point. It even describes how calculations can
>be done on the syllables by associating meanings to them (our
>ancestors were great obscurantists!)
>
>-- srinivas
>
>an example multiplication:       536
>                               * 214
>                             ----------
>                  10    5+6     20+3+12      12+6     24
>                  |      |        |            |       | 
>                 5*2   5*1+3*2  5*4+3*1+6*2  3*4+6*1  6*4                 
>
>adding up (each sum for one digit, carry over extra digit) we get: 114704
>                        
>It seems much tougher, but the idea is that one can directly calculate
>the value of 535*234 or whatever without touching a pen or notebook. and
>we can go anyway, left to right or right to left. With practice it would 
>be much much easier than the one we generally do.
>
>The author (sankaracharya (some saraswati?)) says that this should be
>put to practice in schools instead of the one that's usually followed.
>
>another example is: to calculate values of fractions such as 1/19
>etc. We can use the sloka (ekOnnati pUrvAha, if i remember correctly) 
>here to get the values:
>
>1/19: doing it backwards, start with 5 (i don't remeber why), double 
>present number, put the last digit of the result, carry on rest..
>continue until the seq repeats:
>
>             .05263157894736842105
>
>He extends this to do general division... some freaky methods!



   I think you are talking about Swami Dyananda Saraswathi, a
  Ex IIT-M Math prof, who took sanyasa from the koodali
  Shankara Mutta. He lectures on Science and Religion and
 on Vedic Math. I heard that he met Gorbechov some time
  back ( It was posted on SCI).
                             .........venkatesh 
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