How about another algorithm to add numbers in parallel? Presumably it is easier for human beings to add small integers than it is to add larger ones. It is even more easy to add a list of single-digit numbers.
Now instead of just distributing the set of numbers among the people, we might assign each person to one's place digits, another to ten's place digits, and so on. So each person's tasks becomes much easier.
The con I see is that we have increased communication, in the sense that the "carry over" from the one's place sum will have to be given to the ten's place person, whose carry will have to be given to the hundred's place, and so on.
jamesyang9
Interesting idea, I agree that it would be easier for humans to add single digits. I think this would be much more useful for adding a small number of very large numbers. The more digits in the numbers, the more parallelism can be achieved using this method since we can only have as many workers (humans) as there are digits. Also a problem might arise with carrying over larger numbers. For example if I was adding 9+9+9...9 (12 times) then I would get 108 which requires me to carry over 10, so I couldn't simply communicate with the person with the next higher digit because in reality the next two higher digits have to change as a result of the carryover.
How about another algorithm to add numbers in parallel? Presumably it is easier for human beings to add small integers than it is to add larger ones. It is even more easy to add a list of single-digit numbers.
Now instead of just distributing the set of numbers among the people, we might assign each person to one's place digits, another to ten's place digits, and so on. So each person's tasks becomes much easier.
The con I see is that we have increased communication, in the sense that the "carry over" from the one's place sum will have to be given to the ten's place person, whose carry will have to be given to the hundred's place, and so on.
Interesting idea, I agree that it would be easier for humans to add single digits. I think this would be much more useful for adding a small number of very large numbers. The more digits in the numbers, the more parallelism can be achieved using this method since we can only have as many workers (humans) as there are digits. Also a problem might arise with carrying over larger numbers. For example if I was adding 9+9+9...9 (12 times) then I would get 108 which requires me to carry over 10, so I couldn't simply communicate with the person with the next higher digit because in reality the next two higher digits have to change as a result of the carryover.