# Can you still do long division?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-still-do-long-division/605342
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 7, 2011, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-still-do-long-division/605342 "2011-12-07T03:56:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-still-do-long-division/605342/41 "2011-12-08T13:06:58Z")
> [@OpalCat](#):
>
> What is this “still” you speak of?
>
> No, because we never learned. I took geometry, then Algebra II… then 20 years later in college I took Business Statistics, then I got out of taking another college math class by taking Deductive Logic.
>
> That’s just stuff since high school. Before high school we just learned decimals and fractions and how to add/subtract/multiply/divide them, and things like long division and very basic pre-algebra stuff.
>
> We were never taught how to figure out the square root of a number on paper. I know this because I’ve always wondered how it was done because it seems like magic to me. I’ve wondered ever since I learned what a square root was–I said to myself–well how to they figure that out for stuff that isn’t so simple as 2x2=4??? And since that’s when I formed my lifelong question, and it never got answered, I’m pretty confident saying they never taught it to us.
You poor deprived child. Here’s how it worked:
[http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/math/sqrt.htm](http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/math/sqrt.htm)
> **[Calculate square root without a calculator](https://www.homeschoolmath.net/teaching/square-root-algorithm.php)**
>
> Explanation of three ways to find square roots without calculator, including the Babylonian method.
> **[Arithmetic Extraction of Square Roots](https://engineeringtraining.tpub.com/14069/css/Arithmetic-Extraction-Of-Square-Roots-25.htm)**
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-still-do-long-division/605342/42 "2011-12-08T13:08:04Z")
> [@guizot](#):
>
> Maybe. I’d rather know how many of us had an imaginary number when we were little.
>
> Come on, admit it. You did. What did you call it?
“I”
I named it after myself.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-still-do-long-division/605342/43 "2011-12-08T13:29:45Z")
I can still do short division, too. (Not a joke - there is such a thing)
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### Author:  [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-still-do-long-division/605342/44 "2011-12-08T16:37:36Z")
More or less. If it’s more than four digits, I won’t bother. And I don’t always get the right answer (I have problems doing addition in my head sometimes too - I lose track of the numbers I’m carrying. :smack: )
Hey, I’m an artist / writer, not an engineer! 😛
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### Author:  [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-still-do-long-division/605342/45 "2011-12-08T18:52:18Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> You poor deprived child. Here’s how it worked:
>
> [http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/math/sqrt.htm](http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/math/sqrt.htm)
>
> [Calculate square root without a calculator](http://www.homeschoolmath.net/teaching/square-root-algorithm.php)
>
> [Arithmetic Extraction of Square Roots](http://engineeringtraining.tpub.com/14069/css/14069_25.htm)
I think I just felt my brain dribbling out my ears. Numbers don’t like me and I don’t like numbers. I have [dyscalculia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyscalculia) and consider it a difficult task just to read off a 10-digit phone number to someone, or read out a credit card number. I usually have to run my finger along the number to make sure I keep the numbers in the right order.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-still-do-long-division/605342/46 "2011-12-08T21:00:21Z")
> [@OpalCat](#):
>
> I think I just felt my brain dribbling out my ears. Numbers don’t like me and I don’t like numbers. I have [dyscalculia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyscalculia) and consider it a difficult task just to read off a 10-digit phone number to someone, or read out a credit card number. I usually have to run my finger along the number to make sure I keep the numbers in the right order.
My condolences. Pepper Mill, my wife, has some dyslexia that mainly manifests itself with math. She hates most math, but she has to put up with a mathophile like me.
Fortunately, we now have calculators for this kind of thing. But it’s nice to know how to do it with pencil and paper if you need to.
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### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-still-do-long-division/605342/47 "2011-12-08T21:53:49Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> You poor deprived child. Here’s how it worked:
>
> [http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/math/sqrt.htm](http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/math/sqrt.htm)
>
> [Calculate square root without a calculator](http://www.homeschoolmath.net/teaching/square-root-algorithm.php)
>
> [Arithmetic Extraction of Square Roots](http://engineeringtraining.tpub.com/14069/css/14069_25.htm)
Many thanks. I was shown this at primary school and had long forgotten it. And there’s a link from one of those pages that explains the (very simple) algebra that’s hiding behind that method. 🆒
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### Author:  [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-still-do-long-division/605342/48 "2011-12-08T22:00:59Z")
> [@dangermom](#):
>
> I help my kids with math, so yes. I’m also trying to keep myself in practice with Khan Academy–I’ve earned the pre-algebra challenge badge and have a way to go (but you have to do every exercise, so it takes a while!).
I wish you had included a warning about how addictive that site is. It’s like crack.
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