Who does Math without a Calculator?

I worked with a Quantity Surveyor /Estimator who could add, subtract, multiply, or divide a line of numbers, quicker than someone with a calculator… and get it right.

No pencil or paper required.

Trying to keep up with him was a challenge.

45 foundations, 1.2-meters diameter x 7 meters deep. By the time I pulled out a calculator and turned it on, his brain had it worked out.

Pi (π), was one of my favourite formulas, yet I rarely did the computing in my mind.

Maybe it was a lack of confidence, and being terrified of stuffing up.

In my early years of school, we were still learning math tables parrot fashion.

Doing them quickly was about the only way to take the boredom out of it.

Even the teacher was bored.

One day he came to school with a dart board.

He was not long out of teachers college and had decided to take accommodation at one of the local pubs.

The town only had two pubs, creatively called the Top pub and the Bottom pub. He choose the top pub.

It had a big oval-shaped bar with 3 dart boards scattered around the perimeter of bar. The publican’s son was in our class.

At that young age math just became a little more interesting.

Placing the dart board on the chalk rack at the bottom of the blackboard was about the…