Seth Cohn <sethc...@gnuhampshire.org> writes: > On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 1:19 PM, Ken D'Ambrosio <k...@jots.org> wrote: > > On Wed, April 28, 2010 12:07 pm, Jon 'maddog' Hall wrote: > > > > > > It is the same thing as learning how to add, subtract, multiply and > > > divide before you start using a calculator. > > > > In '76, my grandfather -- a mathematician -- bought me my first > > calculator. (A 7-digit red LED Commodore, no less. And, yes, that's the > > same Commodore.) My next-door-neighbor predicted the demise of all > > abilities to compute when our brains went soft because of calculators. > > Fast-forward to high-school physics, and our teacher decided to force logs > > on us... by way of a sliderule. I was the fastest in my class -- but it > > still made me wonder if similarly-dire Luddite-esque predictions hadn't > > been made when they'd come along. > > The day they allowed SAT test takers to use calculators, I knew that > they'd hit rock bottom, and the tests no longer were meaningful > (compared to when I took them and avg scores were dropping faster and > faster). If you can't do the math yourself, how do you know the > answer the calc gave is wrong? Sliderules are merely shortcuts, you > still had to do some thinking about the answers.
Did you know that, while graphing calculators are now allowed for use on the SATs, sliderules are not? -- "Don't be afraid to ask (λf.((λx.xx) (λr.f(rr))))." _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/