UK teacher subtracts mystery from Vedic mathematics

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UK teacher subtracts mystery from Vedic mathematics

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Publication: The Times Of India

December 15, 2002

James Glover's love affair with Vedic mathematics began nearly 25

years ago. As head of the mathematics department at St James'

Independent High School in the UK, he has been an ardent champion of

the system, with several textbooks to his credit. "We use the system

because it's brilliant and it works," the 46-year-old Welshman

explains. He is in the city on the first leg of an India-wide tour

sponsored by Motilal Banarasidas, publishers of his books and

organisers of more than 100 Vedic mathematics workshops in India.

 

"Vedic mathematics also provides superb arithmetic skills mainly by

training people to approach problems from different angles." He "They

are thus able to choose the most efficient or elegant means of

solving problems."

 

How does Vedic mathematics differ from its more conventional

counterpart? Mr Glover answers with an illustration. "Take the

Wimbledon tennis competition. There are 128 entrants, they play in a

knock-out manner," he says. "The first round has 64 games, the next

has 32 games until you reach the quarter-finals, semifinals and the

final.

 

"The problem is to find out how many matches there are all-together.

The conventional approach is to add the number of games- plus 32 plus

16 plus eight plus four plus two plus one-to get to the answer, which

is 127. Now the Vedic approach, which uses one of the sutras, argues

in the following way.

 

"Since there are 128 players and only one person wins the

competition, there must be 127 losers and for each loser there is a

match, so there are 127 matches. Thus, Vedic mathematics teaches you

different approaches to problems systematically. That's what makes it

such a useful educative tool. The results in our math department are

extremely high. We regularly send our pupils to the top universities

and their mathematics departments."

 

According to him, the 16 basic sutras or aphorisms of Vedic

mathematical and an equal number of sub-sutras are a unifying

system. "Specifically, they point to the way in which the mind works

naturally to solve problems. If, for example, you have to add 49 to

76, the easiest way would be to add 50 and take off one and then take

75 and add one. That's quite natural, relating the 49 or 76 to the

nearest whole number near them. Vedic mathematics teaches those sort

of methods systematically rather than leave them to accidental

discovery"

 

How does he respond to the oft-made criticism that Vedic math is

really a set of parlour tricks rather than a deep mathematic

system? "A trick is a trick until you understand it. But if you

understand how the sutras work, how the squaring of numbers is done,

for example, it becomes mathematics," he answers.

 

"The difference between the magical aspect and the mathematics itself

is in the understanding. The Shankaracharya who developed this system

gives illustrative examples of this. And we have further cell this in

the last 25 with all kinds of proof such as fast methods of binominal

expansions, a higher level of mathematics using Vedic techniques,

which are not being seen in the West."

 

According to Mr Glover, Vedic mathematics is also successful at

combating mathematics, which is widespread in schools. "It encourages

people to bring numbers inside themselves. They are then no longer

enemies, they're friends. One of its basic principles is that there

are nine numbers only together with the nought and those just repeat

making the numbers. What we teach the children is that these nine

numbers and the cipher are friends with whom they can play."

 

What about the charge that the promotion of Vedic mathematics amounts

to reinventing an illusory glorious past? "No such criticism can be

leveled at us in the UK. We can argue for the introduction of Vedic

mathematics purely for practical, down-to-earth everyday reasons," Mr

Glover avers. "However, the philosophical basis of Vedic mathematics,

which is Advaita or Non-Dualism, is extremely important. It's not a

political issue. So, by definition, you cannot use it to divide or

exclude or ostracise certain groups of people."