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'No calculators'
Fuck that bullshit. After you're in highschool it shouldn't matter a damn shit whether you use calculators on homework or a test. Wasting time on adding simple math is menial and furthermore obsolete. If you can't count back change at a register that isn't nary a strike against you.
It's hardly a wonder the US lags so much in education. Our public schools are shit. Teaching a shit curriculum.
It's hardly a wonder the US lags so much in education. Our public schools are shit. Teaching a shit curriculum.
Comments
You might as well add the abacus back into our schools.
Besides, it's division and fractions, damn those fractions, that's harder. That's just simple multiplication. You learn that shit in grade school.
now, you can bring a calculator with you via most technology, but I am glad I memorized most multiplication/division/math/subtraction problems so I don't have that "pause" where I figure it out in my head.
For more advanced math though I fully support calculator use.
to come by a calculator. They're built into most hand held devices.
Really now? I find quick mental calculations very useful. The point of mental calculations isn't to find exact values--that's when you'd bring out a calculator anyway. The point is to make estimations of things very quickly and efficiently.
Tell me, which looks better at a restaurant, pulling out your cell phone and crunching the numbers on a bill, or being able to multiply roughly by 15% in your head? Note that I don't actually multiply by 0.15--I simply knock the decimal one place over and then add half of that. (Note that I'm also guilty of pulling out my cell phone and crunching numbers to figure out the tip.)
And more recently, I was estimating the approximate "multiplier" for what amount of rent is roughly equivalent to what amount of mortgage principal. I used a calculator, yes, but setting up the math that led to actual number-crunching was all done without a calculator, between me and a piece of paper. Not to mention that the multiplier I ended up getting, I ended up playing with it in the shower. Yes, because it was 125, it was quite easy to divide and multiply by it, so I ended up getting to test it a few times.
You can get the TI-89, which can do differentiation (mostly) and integration (sometimes), but anything past that is going to require you to figure things out, and the only time you'll be using a computer is when we're talking about tasks that are just far too tedious for a human to do anyway--such as a slope field of a differential equation.
If you're solving systems of linear equations, yes, you can do them by hand...but even if you're using matrix manipulations, solving say 16 equations for 16 variables is still going to be a gigantic pain.
^ Well, as I said above, most of the time the point of mental calculation isn't to get exact answers, but to get ballpark answers or simple answers, much faster.
y would do
That's because carrying numbers is a pain especially when you have a ton of numbers to carry.
If possible I find alternative ways to do stuff. For example, instead of multiplying by 9, I add a place zero and then subtract one of itself.
Let's say, 14x18: 2x7x2x9. 7x9 = 63. 126. 240+12 = 252. Much better than saying, okay, 14 * 10 = 140, adding to 14 * 8 = 80 + 32 = 112, 140 + 112 = 252.
I figure it might come up for finite elements analysis. Don't know why you wouldn't do something like that without a computer, though.
The largest system I know is 10 variables in 10 equations large (finding the reactions to a force in an axle fitted in between two walls).
Yes it is. I can only do evening shifts in tandem with someone else at the fraternity bar because I'm too slow with calculating bigger orders, amongst other things. And afternoon shifts are boring as hell, especially now that most classes are over.
Really? It's easier than breaking the numbers down into factors and keeping track of them.
I've never found mental math very difficult, though.
I mean, seriously, try to calculate the feed rate, that a milling machine needs to mill a specific work piece, in your head. It's a very simple thing, but I could never do it without a calculator.