RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] beginner slide rule wanted

["Matthew Ross" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

> > You can, it's just a matter of what method you use. Given 
> some of the
> > results I've gotten from calculators and their shortcut 
> tables, I don't
> > know how signifigant we can consider their digits.
> 
> Please tell us more about this.  It's a remarkable claim.

You never learned how to do your math on paper, did you?
Every calculation either has an absolute answer (1+1, 11.25/1337), or an iterative method for calculation that gets progressively more accurate depending on how many iterations you go through (2^.5).

If, alternatively, you mean my claim about calculators, then all you have to do is compare the numbers you get from the iterative method to what the calculator yields. Pi, by far, is the worst of these, but I've seen it in roots and trig functions. Keep in mind how the calculators work, though. They are a series of table based shortcuts which are usually accurate enough, but not perfect. The tables have a set accuracy (usually 8 sf.) that when complicated by other inaccurate numbers, results in compounded inaccuracy.

Also don't confuse 'calculator' with 'computer'. Modern calculating computers use the iterative method, and don't fall prey to the inherent problems with shortcut yielded numbers.

> > I was home schooled, and my mother didn't believe in 
> calculators, which
> > helped my math skills a lot.
> 
> She didn't believe in using calculators?  I hope she believes 
> that it's OK
> once you've learned to do the arithmetic by hand.  
> Calculators are good
> things!

I don't mean she spurned technology, she just didn't think you should use a calculator to learn math. I agree to some extent. Even if you learn aritmetic as a child, if you use calculators for everything from then on, you will be just as bad off as if you'd never learned it.

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