h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Calculating Square Roots of Any Number By Hand - A820676
Author: #202044 - U202044

Welcome to my Guide Entry.

Regards,
#202044

Nice entry, I think...
You need to follow through on your example though. I tried to use the method, but got confused already on step 2.

I think I need to wait until the cricket commentary ends before I can concentrate enough to take another look at this

A good article, i think. I haven't tested it, but i guess it works. You might want to add an example at the end, but other than that I think it just needs to wait 7 days and get picked.

Good idea on the example follow through - thanks for the suggestion everyone. I was afraid of trying to do that on account of fretting over notation and the way it might appear (i.e. downright ugly) in the entry, but I will edit to include the solution to the example and see how it turns out.

Thanks - and
Regards,
#202044

You might be able to get the square root sign to work by putting a V at the beginning of the number to be square rooted and underline the bits written above it. It might look right.

Alternatively, you could use

√


which will show up in your entry as the square root symbol (or something very similar to it anyway....

I tried to follow the instructions, and I got lost a little way into step three...

Some jargon: "radical sign".

I think that rather than having instructions and then an example, you should have a single worked example, and include lots of diagrams. Unfortunately, due to BBC restrictions, you'll have to make do with ASCII art for your diagrams, which won't make life any easier. Oh well.

You should probably tell people where to start on their peice of paper: IE, towards the top, with a decent margin from the left-hand side.

And yeah, ...

-Martin

"Maths requires heavy use of notation which rarely translates well over ASCII. Help devise a standard notation for h2g2 fora by taking part in the notation discussion.

NB - please use the following convention for mathematical articles. Use TeX to HTML to generate the table containing the formatted HTML of the expression then include the expression as TeX source underneath. The formatted version is for the subs and readers before it is editted, the TeX is for the in-house editing team so they can generate pictures for the editted guide. An example is here"

From U162115 h2g2 Mathematical Institute

I have made an attempt to create at least a close pass at what the longhand version of the problem might look like, using the GuideML syntax. I'm not capable enough to do much more than this at the moment with my limited knowledge of other options.

Hopefully all of you who have made a stab at the problem will find it of some use. Best wishes, and --

Regards,
#202044

Wow, someone else who knows this method! I do this fairly often actually - it's really fun in bases other than ten!

Anyway, the entry is good. You explain the method clearly, and without undue messing around. I just have a couple of suggestions.

As to content, you've got a bit about accuracy, and how if you have four pairings of digits after the decimal, you'll get four decimal places of accuracy in your answer. That's not strictly true, because you won't know whether the last digit should maybe round up. If I need four decimal places of accuracy, I use five pairings of digits to the right of the decimal, and use the last one to round, if necessary.

Here, this sentence tripped me up a bit: "Multiply the number above the square root sign by 2, ignoring where the above decimal might reside within the number (treat it as a product of two whole numbers)."

That's just a little awkward, I think. It's that 'it' at the beginning of the parenthetical. It looks like it's pointing to "the number" immediately before the parentheses, but it actually refers to the product of that number and 2, which doesn't actually appear in the sentence as a noun. (Sorry, that was very grammar-geeky.)

Would an example be clearer? Like, if you have 11.2 above the radical, then your number D will be 224, ignoring the decimal point. Also, you could illustrate about the blank space at the end by writing out something like, if D=224, then you want to write "224_".

I can't comment on the table at the end, because I'm viewing on an old Mac, and spacing always goes all screwy here - the entry on ASCII Art (a great entry - A623639) is utterly useless on this machine. If the table isn't working out for you, you might experiment w/ the tags. Then you don't have to type " " and all that nonsense.

Anyway, thanks for writing this entry. I like it a lot. Now that I'm reminded, I might extract the square root of 42 by hand, just for giggles. (Hey, you give up drugs, what else is there?)

Oops. When I said 'D', in the above posting, I didn't actually mean D. I meant the number that you write to the left of D, which becomes Y when you add a digit at the end of it.

GTB

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

This is great news - I wish I had been able to read that last lengthy commentary sooner. There were some good ideas for changes there that I would like to have updated beforehand.

Thanks to all who contributed to the commentary. There were quite a few changes made to the Entry as a result, all for the better.

Regards,
#202044

I still think it's somewhat unclear. I'd challenge anyone who doesn't already know the process to follow the steps through on paper and get the right answer - I couldn't, and I did Maths at A-level... I did manage to follow through the worked example, but even then I got stuck briefly in places and had to refer back to the previous description.

Realistically, I think there's a danger that people will read the first bit, fail to understand it, and stop there, before they get to the example. All this X and Y stuff is really off-putting, and you have to concentrate hard to remember exactly what D was.

Maybe it's just too late in the day for maths, but I found this thing a struggle. I get it now, more or less, but I wouldn't have any confidence in it.

-Martin

The diagram at the bottom is the most useful thing... and it's right at the end - too late!

I have to agree with Lucinda here, it is still very difficult to follow...

Hi, #202044, howzitgoin?

Remember me, from post #11? Well, I'm now your SubEditor! I actually requested this entry, because I really like it, and from being here in the PR thread, I knew you had said there were some changes you'd still like to make.

Let's see... Have you gone through the process of having an entry put in the Edited Guide before? . . . Ah, it appears not. I'll tell you how it works.

First of all, there's a new copy of your entry. It's at: A827453. That's the version I'll be editing, while your original version is yours to keep, or do whatever you want with. Nobody else can change it.

After I Sub the new version of your entry, I'll send it back to the Towers, where they'll do a final polish, and possibly add some nfity BBC links. When they're done with it, it will appear in the "My Entries" list on your page, marked "pending". Some indefinite amount of time after that (avg 2 weeks?), your entry will hit the Front Page, and thus achieve immortality.

I've already dipped into the entry enough to play with the example at the end a bit. I put the table all in rows and columns, and I'd appreciate if people could tell me how it looks on their browsers. It looks great here, but I'm on IE for the Mac, which is by no means typical.

So, #202044, if you have any changes you'd like made at this stage, or if I've done something that you'd like to ask or comment about, just post here.

I think that's all for now. Any questions, just let me know! Congrats for getting picked, and thanks for the great entry!



GTB

Looks good in Opera.
I wonder if it would be a good idea to repeat it a few times though, so one can see the different steps and don't have to scroll up and down and then try to determin which bits are "current" and which are "future". But you probably already planned that.

Actually, NAITA, I was thinking of maybe repeating it a few times, so one could see the different steps and wouldn't have to scroll up and down and then try to determine which bits are "current" and which are.... um.... which bits are "current" and which.... try to determine, y'know, the bits.... scrolling up and down... different steps, and all....




I don't suppose you'd believe this was a simulpost?