This short book is a collection of simple and easily grasped tricks to speed up your mental arithmetic. If you want to master them you should realize that to be used fully they need to be approached conscientiously, not mechanically. But it pays to master them as they will enable you to do calculations in your head without error, as with written calculations.
Yakov Isidorovich Perelman (Russian: Яков Исидорович Перельман; December 4, 1882 � March 16, 1942) was a Russian and Soviet science writer and author of many popular science books, including Physics Can Be Fun and Mathematics Can Be Fun (both translated from Russian into English).