Chapter 9

It is recommended that this work be gone over several times for practice, until the appearance and order of the characters and the details of the method become familiar; that, when the work can be done mechanically and without hesitation, the time occupied in a complete addition of the example, and the mistakes made in it, be carefully noted; that this be done several times, with an interval of some days between the trials, and the result of each trial kept separate; that the time and mistakes by the ordinary figures in the same example, in several trials, be observed for comparison. Please pay particular attention to the difference in the kind of work required by the two methods in its bearing on two questions--which of them would be easier to work by for hours together, supposing both equally well learned? and in which of them could a reasonable degree of skill be more readily acquired by a beginner? The answer to these questions, if the comparison be a fair one, is as little to be doubted as is their high importance.

_Example in addition by two notations_

77,823,876 14,348,907 8,654,912 5,764,801 4,635,857 1,594,323 6,417,728 4,782,969 83,886,075 34,012,224 2,903,111 48,828,125 1,724,826 7,529,536 43,344,817 10,000,000 8,334,712 1,953,125 11,308,417 759,375 21,180,840 9,765,625 18,643,788 1,000,000 44,739,243 1,889,568 2,517,471 40,353,607 4,438,414 1,679,616 23,708,715 11,890,625 945,754 823,543 15,308,805 60,466,176 30,685,377 10,077,696 19,416,381 43,046,721 =========== 740,685,681

Eight volunteer observers to whom this example has already been submitted showed wide difference in arithmetical skill. One of them took but a few seconds over two minutes, in the best of six trials, to add by the usual figures, and set down the sum, but one figure in all the six additions being wrong; another added once in ten minutes fifty-seven seconds, and once in eleven minutes seven seconds, with half the figures wrong each time. The last-mentioned observer had had very little training in arithmetical work, but perhaps that gave a fairer comparison. In the binary figures she made three additions in between seven and eight minutes, with but one place wrong in the three. With four of the observers the binary notation required nearly double the time. These observers were all well practiced in computation. Their best record, five minutes eighteen seconds, was made by one whose best record was two minutes forty seconds in ordinary figures. The author's own best results were two minutes thirty-eight seconds binary, and three minutes twenty-three seconds usual. He thus proved himself inferior to the last observer, as an adder, by a system in which both were equally well trained; but a greater familiarity (extending over a few weeks instead of a few hours) with methods in binary addition enabled him to work twice as fast with them. Of the author's nine additions by the usual figures, four were wrong in one figure each; of his thirty-two additions by different forms of binary notation, five were wrong, one of them in two places. One observer found that he required one minute thirty-three seconds to add a single column (average of five tried) by the usual figures, and fifteen seconds to count the characters in one (average of six tried) by the binary. Though these additions were rather slow, the results are interesting. They show, making allowance for the greater number of columns (three and a third times as many) required by the binary plan, a saving of nearly half; but they also illustrate the necessity of practice. This observer succeeded with the binary arithmetic by avoiding the sources of delay that particularly embarrass the beginner, by contenting himself with counting only, and not stopping to divide by two, to set down an unfamiliar character, or to recognize the mark by which he must distinguish his next column. One well-known member of the Washington Philosophical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, who declined the actual trial as too severe a task, estimated his probable time with ordinary figures at twenty minutes, with strong chances of a wrong result, after all.

These statistics prove the existence of a class of persons who can do faster and more reliable work by the binary reckoning. But too much should not be made of them. Let them serve as specimens of facts of which a great many more are to be desired, bearing on a question of grave importance. Is it not worth our while to know, if we can, by impartial tests, whether the tax imposed on our working brains by the system of arithmetic in daily use is the necessary price of a blessing enjoyed, or an oppression? If the strain produced by greater complexity and intensity of mental labor is compensated by a correspondingly greater rapidity in dealing with figures, the former may be the case. If, on the contrary, a little practice suffices to turn the balance of rapidity, for all but a small body of highly drilled experts, in favor of an easier system, the latter must be. This is the question that the readers of _Science_ are invited to help in deciding. The difficulties attending a complete revolution in the prevalent system of reckoning are confessedly stupendous; but they do not render undesirable the knowledge that experiment alone can give, whether or not the cost of that system is unreasonably high; nor should they prevent those who accord them the fullest recognition from assisting to furnish the necessary facts.

Those who are willing to undertake the addition on the plan proposed or on any better plan, or who will submit it to such acquaintances, skilled or unskilled, as may be persuaded to take the trouble to learn the mechanism of binary adding, will confer a great favor by informing the writer of the time occupied, and number of mistakes made, in each addition. All observations and suggestions relating to the subject will be most gratefully received.

Henry Farquhar.

Office of U.S. Coast Survey, Washington, D.C.

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