Abstract
Traditional algorithms for addition and multiplication – that we all study at school – start with the lowest possible digits. Interestingly, many people in Mexico use a different algorithm, in which operations start with the highest digits. We show that in many situations, this alternative algorithm is indeed more efficient – especially in typical practical situations when we know the values – that we need to add or subtract – only with uncertainty.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation grants 1623190 (A Model of Change for Preparing a New Generation for Professional Practice in Computer Science), and HRD-1834620 and HRD-2034030 (CAHSI Includes). It was also supported by the program of the development of the Scientific-Educational Mathematical Center of Volga Federal District No. 075-02-2020-1478.
The authors are thankful to the anonymous referees for valuable suggestions.
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Urenda, J.C., Servin, C., Kosheleva, O., Kreinovich, V. (2022). Mexican Folk Arithmetic Algorithm Makes Perfect Sense. In: Rayz, J., Raskin, V., Dick, S., Kreinovich, V. (eds) Explainable AI and Other Applications of Fuzzy Techniques. NAFIPS 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 258. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82099-2_41
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82099-2_41
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