On 09/19/2017 03:07 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
How relevant is the "people use calculators to do arithmetic" argument
today? Okay, so I'm old and cynical, but I know [young] people who
don't (can't?) calculate a gratuity without an app or a web page.
Which is a form of calculator. People still learn to use calculators at
school, they still use them at work. They use Excel, which is prone to
Wow. I still remember decrying the use of calculators in school. It
seemed like the loss of actual math understanding. When I was young
(and not running from dinosaurs) we learned the addition and
multiplication tables by heart (and received a few sore knuckles while
we struggled) and then learned to do math by paper and pencil. When it
was time for a mechanical aid we got a slide rule. I truly believe that
doing so gave me the best understanding of math that I could get. Now,
of course, I use calculators and computers but I still understand the
theory behind what I am doing.
To this day while writing code I will actually put pen to paper in order
to check that my program is doing the correct calculations.
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