[HPforGrownups] Re: Pre-Hogwarts education

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 14640

joym999 at aol.com wrote:

> For example, the wizarding community MUST have a magical way to do
> arithmetic.  There is simply no way any group of people could use a
> monetary system where 29 Knuts = 1 sickle and 17 sickles = 1 galleon
> without magic.  Humans are just not capable of doing that kind of
> arithmetic in their heads.

Certainly we are. Talk to any well-educated person over, oh, 60, and
they'll be able to tell you all sorts of little "trick" shortcuts and
mnemonics for "in the head" math. (Like one my mom taught me, that any
double-digit multiple of eleven will be the first number, the sum of the
two, then the second number--11x11 = 121, 11x14=154, 11x26=286, etc. [I
don't know that this holds up after the sum of the two numbers is itself
two-digit]). Plus, when you're talking about just a few quantities and
their various combinations, these will be memorized readily.

--Amanda


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