Courtesy: The Hindu 11 – 10 = ½ = 0.5 The equation on the blackboard baffled me as I walked into a classroom where I was given an exam duty. Somebody had rubbed out something, I thought. My mind started playing its usual game. Come on, change it, said my mind. This is how I changed it: 11 – 10 = 1 I erased two figures mentally, the denominator 2 and the final decimal part of the equation. Such a simplistic solution failed to satisfy me especially since I had a lot of free time in the exam room. Seeing my solution, Sherlock Holmes would have said, “Elementary, Mr Matheikal.” My mind made the following equation: (11 - 10 ) ÷ 2 = ½ = 0.5 That was neat, said my mind. I had added a denominator 2 to the first part of the equation. 11 – 10 = 1 = 0.5 x 2 What I did was to transpose the denominator 2 to the RHS (right hand side) of the equation. One could go on. How far you go wit...
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