• PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk
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    4 days ago

    Can you count backwards by 7s

    counting backwards in multiples of 7? i’d struggle with that and i consider myself at least average

    • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      It’s probably like field sobriety tests, where how you struggle is relevant. If you miss one in a sequence, that says something different from repeatedly going up instead of down or counting backwards on your hands first.

      • Takumidesh@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        I would need to use my hands or count out loud or do something after maybe two numbers if we are starting at 100.

        Trying it out just now and the only way I can really effectively do it is by subbing 10 and adding three each time.

    • toynbee@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      If this were the entire question, I’d be confused. Another comment suggested starting from 0 and going into negatives, but my initial response would be “starting from what?” expecting to start at 100 or 77 or something.

      However, an elementary school teacher told me that negative numbers don’t exist, so that might be related …

    • Nalivai@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Doing arithmetics quickly is a skill that is slowly dying out of the general population. When we all used cache we had this with us all the time, but now we just don’t use it that often, generally, on average

      • PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk
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        3 days ago

        just as well, i always struggled with it.

        And my teachers at school used to say “You wont always have a calculator on you”

        Look at me now, i spend 7.5 hours a day paid to sit in front of an expensive calculator with two other expensive calculators in my pocket. after which i spend several hours on my own personal expensive calculator before going to bed and doom scrolling on one of the aforementioned… expensive calculators.

        Anything more than the most basic mental arithmetic at school was a waste of time that would have been better spent teaching me how to code. would have saved me teaching myself a few years later after working a soul crushing call centre job for 4 years (in which i used a not very expensive and dog shit slow calculator)