Doing the Math Is Like Child’s Play

The American public’s Angst over a 32-cent stamp is hilarious. (“Post Office Math Does Make Sense--to Them,” Dec. 29).

After so many harrowing hours memorizing multiplication tables in grade school, one would think our citizens could do simple math.

PUNEET SANDHU, Fontana

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If you are familiar with algebra and you have to buy 28 stamps at 32 cents each, than a very well known algebraic formula can be used, namely (a-b) x (a+b) = a to the second power minus b to the second power. In this case 28 equals 30 minus 2 and 32 equals 30 plus 2. This results in 30 to the second power (=900) minus 2 to the second power (=4), giving a total payable amount of $8.96.

Further, just for a lark, writer Kathleen Doheny mentions pi, the math symbol for calculating circumferences of circles, let me mention a shortcut very common in European countries. There, the equation of 22/7 is used in place of pi (which on a calculator is 3.1428571+).

The correct value of pi, however, is 3.1415926535+, a row of digits not easy to memorize, but with a little help from the French we could make it easy to find the correct value by memorizing: “Que j’aime a faire connaitre un nombre utile aux sages.”

Count the number of characters of each word and, voila, there is the value of pi. Having a hard time memorizing that French line? It means: “How I love to introduce a useful number to the sages.”

OEN SEK HONG, Moreno Valley