 |
Community |
|
|
VEDIC MATHEMATICS NEWSLETTER Newsletter of the World Academy of Vedic Mathematics (part of the International Research and Resource Foundation for Indian heritage)
A warm welcome to new subscribers. ***************************** This issue's article is from Wired Magazine (http://www.wired.com) and is written by Manu Joseph. MODERN STUDENTS DEVOUR OLD MATH MUMBAI, India -- What is the square of 85? In an instant, a 17-year-old boy said without blinking, "7,225." Kamlesh Shetty had used a trick from a quaint concept called Vedic math, a compilation of arithmetic shortcuts believed to have been written by ancient Indians who lived centuries before Christ, during a glorious period in Indian history called the Vedic Age. Its math has now crawled into the 21st century to further Shetty's dream of cracking a nasty engineering entrance exam. For most Indian students, engineering is a calling decided in the cradle by their parents. It is engineering that is most likely to take them away from Third World realities to the shores of America's good life. So the tussle to get into engineering colleges is often cruel. In top entrance exams, only one out of 100 candidates makes the cut. Quick problem-solving ability becomes the most crucial link between aspiration and fortune. Coaching for these exams is a multimillion-dollar industry in India, but with almost every student equipped with such preparatory courses, the applicants search for something more. That's why several Indian students are beginning to get help from an ancient source -- Vedic math. It has 16 brief formulas in Sanskrit that have been translated and interpreted into astonishing arithmetic shortcuts. Shetty did not know the original Sanskrit verses, but he did know how to crack the square of 85 in less than a second. "To find the square of any number ending with 5, just put 25 on the right-hand side," he said. "Take the number that precedes five. In this case it is 8. Add 1 to it. So in this case it becomes 9. Multiply 8 and 9. You get 72. 7,225 is the square of 85. It's easy." Shetty is preparing for the prestigious Joint Entrance Exam. Over 150,000 candidates take this entrance exam every year to compete for only about 3,500 seats in the Indian Institute of Technology. Two-thirds of IIT's graduates leave for America, augmenting the thousands already there who contribute to the institute's reputation. American colleges and industry greatly favor students from IIT, a situation that has only increased competition to enter the institute. Pradeep Kumar, who teaches Vedic math in Delhi, said, "There is an increasing interest among IIT aspirants to take the help of Vedic math." Kumar charges such students about $120 for 40 hours of lessons. He teaches more than 200 students in the classroom and guides over 600 through long-distance courses. Not all of his students dream of attending IIT. Several, mostly engineering pupils, are preparing for MBA entrance exams as tough as IIT's. One of Kumar's students, Kartik Arora, said, "Obviously Vedic math cannot teach you how to solve a problem. But it greatly reduces the computing time. I can vouch for the fact that in a two-hour exam, I can save about 10 minutes using Vedic math." Vedic mathematics was ushered into the modern age by a Hindu seer called Tirthaji Maharaja, after his book on the subject was published posthumously in 1965. He culled 16 formulas from ancient scriptures. Whether the formulas were indeed written centuries ago or were largely partisan interpretations of obscure Sanskrit text is a matter of academic debate. T.A. Ramasubban, who has penned a book on Vedic math, said, "The controversy arises because some people question how a cryptic Sanskrit verse that means several things can be safely interpreted as an arithmetic shortcut. For example, there is a verse in the Vedas (scriptures) that praises Lord Krishna in the Vedas. If the Sanskrit words are interpreted, the verse gives the value of pi to 30 decimal points. "My point is that a verse may extol a god, but ... if it also gives the value of pi to 30 decimals, it cannot be a coincidence or desperate translation." The controversy over whether ancient texts have been unfairly stretched to pass as formulas does not affect students like Prashant Chopra. He is a fourth-year engineering student gearing up for an MBA entrance test to secure a place in the Indian Institute of Management. Last year, more than 130,000 students vied for 1,300 seats. Thanks to Vedic math, Chopra can arrive at the square of 109 in a second -- and that means more to him than whether the subject is indeed Vedic or math. Top preparatory courses that coach hundreds of thousands of students do not teach Vedic math yet. "I know that many of my own students are curious about Vedic math," said Rajesh Lad, a math instructor, "but I believe that learning a new way of computation may confuse students. Students must sharpen methods that they are comfortable with instead of taking exotic routes." Dinesh Arora, a Vedic math teacher whose two sons will be testing for IIT after mastering the tips of Vedic math, said with a chuckle: "These (teachers) do not realize that some of the shortcuts they themselves suggest are indirectly sourced from Vedic math." **************************** COURSE IN MANCHESTER, UK An introductory course on Vedic Mathematics at the Bharatiya Vidhya
Bhavan Manchester, starts on the 18th September 2004 and runs every
Saturday from 10.00am-11.00am through until 11th December 2004 with
a mid-term break on 30th October.
Jain (Australia) who has just spent 5 weeks in Sydney teaching Vedic Maths and Sacred Geometry, and also in the U.S. has been invited as a guest speaker on 24th September 2004 in Brisbane, Australia at the next international Nexus Conference. He will be speaking on Vedic Mathematics and related subjects. Jain is also to write another article on VM for the Nexus Magazine.
World Association for Vedic Studies, Inc. India Branch. On SCIENCE, CONSCIOUSNESS & VEDIC HERITAGE. Call for Papers International enquiries may be directed to: Prof. BhuDev Sharma (President,
WAVES): Professor, Clark Atlanta Uni., Atlanta, GA 30314, USA (Address:
2495 D Briarcliff Road, Atlanta, GA 30329), 404-248-9494; wavesbds94@yahoo.com
Date: September 24-26, 2004. Place: Rutgers University, Busch Campus,
Piscataway, NJ Organized by the Educators' Society for the Heritage of India (ESHI),
your non-profit support organization to educate the world about India. Proposed Program: Who is it for? What this program is all about? For more information, registration, queries and suggestions please
visit: www.eshi.org
REPORT ON VM WORKSHOPS IN AHMEDABAD by Ashutosh Rawal World Academy of Vedic Maths took the initiative and decided to conduct
the VM workshop in Ahmedabad, which has been academically inclined
from the beginning. The event would not have been possible without
the invaluable support of L. D. Institute of Indology in terms of
venue as well as publicity for the event. The press conference was
called and one workshop was announced for 3 days : 9 -11 August 2004.
We were expecting 60-80 participants as the capacity of the hall was
100 participants. Unfortunately there were unprecedented rains in
the city and we were able to get only 19 registrations till Saturday.
The workshop was going to start from Monday evening and our hopes
were dismal with heavy flooding in the city and many roads blocked
with water. We were wondering if the people who had already registered
would be able to make it till the venue. **************************** INTERESTING ESSAY BY MIGUEL IRADIER Greetings from Spain. I have published an essay in the web with the title "Samkhya and Golden Mean", with later commentaries with the epigraph "Explanations, questions and answers". The page is in the web address www.hurqualya.com . English is not my mother language, therefore the translation is not very good. The essay is a study of the connections between the Samkhya concept of fluctuation, ayurvedic pulsology -nadi vigyan- and the asymmetric and algorithmic theory of measurement proposed by A. S. Stakhov, an Ukrainian mathematician. I am trying to research deeper in this question. This could be very important for the re-evaluation of the Indian heritage and culture, that I love so much. By the way, do you know if Vedic Mathematics treated on the phi number and the so called golden section?
An article "The Sutras of Vedic Mathematics" by Kenneth Williams has been published by the Journal of Oriental Studies, Golden Jubilee Issue, Vol. L, September 2000-June 2001 (published April 2004). ISSN 0030-5324.
WORLD ACADEMY FOR VEDIC MATHEMATICS - contact details Registered Address: Vishwa Punarnirman Sangh, Raval Bhawan, Near
Telankhedi Garden, Nagpur-440 001, India. **************************** Your comments about this Newsletter are invited. Previous issues of this Newsletter can be copied from the Web Site:
www.vedicmaths.org To subscribe or unsubscribe to this Newsletter simply send an email
to that Visit the Vedic Mathematics web site at 13th September 2004 |
|
|