Comments by "Rob Fraser" (@krashd) on "Aisling Bee channels Carol Vorderman - QI - BBC" video.

For a non Brit you were pretty much correct though, Carol was the first Rachel, a walking calculator who was easy on the eyes, highly educated and had a great nature, she did a lot of charity work and comedy shows for good causes. Still does, though she's no spring chicken, hard to believe she first did Countdown 36 years ago.
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Maths is full of fantastic loopholes and tricks. I learned a thing years ago that allowed you to do massively complex equasions just by remembering a handful of rules, but I've forgot them. To be honest though I believe the entirety of maths works that way and I would prefer it to be taught in schools. I was taught the times tables, everything from 1x1 up to 12x12 in primary school and then the likes of algebra, geometry and just a handful of tricks like Pythagoras' theorem when in high school. When it comes to simple maths, like everyday maths, the times tables help because you've memorised them but actually visualising how they work and learning the rules of maths might be more complex for a kid but if you memorise those you can multiply insane numbers in your head instead of the basics. In a strange way maths is a kind of magic because you can show people tricks like the one in this episode of QI or you can spoil it for them and explain how it works and why it will always work. Every time. In school we seem to teach kids the trick, but not the workings behind it.
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