This summer, battle lines were drawn over a simple math problem: 8 ÷ 2(2 + 2) = ? If you divide 8 by 2 first, you get 16, but if you multiply 2 by (2 + 2) first, you get 1. So, which answer is right?

The Karatsuba algorithm is a fast multiplication method that uses a divide-and-conquer approach to multiply large numbers more efficiently than the traditional grade-school method. Instead of ...