After watching the Numberphile video on Russian multiplication, I was shocked that it worked, especially with the disregard for fractions. However, after doing a problem or two, I realized that they are equivalent. For starters, the numbers on the right column are exactly the same. In addition, both methods revolve around writing the multiplicand in binary, but the Russian method is just the Egyptian method backward. Both methods also spell out the multiplicant in binary, but just in opposite directions. Overall, this was pretty cool and I definitely learned something new today.
Hi Nathaniel, great compare and contrast, here. Thank you for the photo for reference. It would be cool to see about an activity that students could do to come to the same conclusion!
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