Mental Arithmetic at Rachinsky's Village School, Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky, 1895
Mental Arithmetic at Rachinsky's Village School, Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky, 1895. The problem on the blackboard, (10²+11²+12²+13²+14²)/365, World of engineering proposes to solve in one's head. I, to be honest, did not manage it at the first attempt: I tried to break it down as a sum of squares of sums, 10+1, 10+2 and so on. In fact, I ought to have taken a simpler path. It is heartening that the lads in the picture are not visited by an instant flash of inspiration either. The teacher depicted is Professor Rachinsky of Moscow University, who opened a school in his native village and taught the children mathematics by his own method. The author of the painting was one of Rachinsky's pupils.