On Tue, 13 Nov 2001 04:45:37 GMT, jweirich / one.net <jweirich / one.net> 
	was ready with:
||
||Here's the synthetic division example.  Poly is an array of polynomial
||coefficients (e.g. x^2 + 3x - 5 => [1, 3, -5])
||
||    def synthetic_divide(a, poly)
||      poly = poly.dup
||      result = [poly.shift]
||      while poly.size > 0
||        result << (a * result[-1]) + poly.shift
||      end
||      result
||    end

  I'm going to squirrel this away for about 8 yrs:)

||
||I wish *I* had Ruby when I was taking math in school.
||

  My next ruby for kids program will be for helping my kid w/spelling.

  One of the reasons why the faculty member down the hall was interested
  in the speed-math program is that his 9 yr old -- a math whiz -- is
  interested in programming and has actually played a little w/C++, once
  he gets ruby on his machine and my program i am absolutely certain
  that the child, curious by nature, will want to know how it works, and
  will probably find that he can understand most of the code. I would
  not be surprised if the kid starts writing his own games in ruby.

  Here in the physics dept a speed-math competition has sprung up, the
  record score (w/default 60s time limit is 57! -- i cant touch that, i
  can do 38, and aspire to 45). The local record holder has observed
  that for him it is more of a training device on the numeric keypad.

  Pete
-- 
screwbean: a shrub or small tree found in the US Desert Southwest