Calculators are for sissies

[olds]

Still have my slide rule.

 

[gorcorps]

Nothing wrong with calculators but...

People who are adept with a slide rule tend to know intuitively when an answer "seems" right. People using calculators don't seem to recognize wrong answers. They don't recognize when the magnitude of a number doesn't make sense given the problem.

I get frustrated with co-workers who (for example) don't seem to grasp that a given amount of production cannot ever decrease by more than 100%. Some people have had to have that explained more than once. They just punch numbers into a calculator and whatever it says must be right.

That merely boils down to somebody knowing what they're doing enough to recognize when something is amiss. Why you're thinking that has anything to do with how somebody calculates something is beyond me. I have massive spreadsheets that go through lots of calculations simultaneously, but I know when the data is wrong. It has nothing to do with ease of calculation and everything to do with the persons grasp on what they're actually calculating.

One could argue that the newest generation of workforce seems to do this the most, and the newest generation was also raised on calculators... but you're dragging out a causation out of a mere correlation at best. This new generation is also the most likely to not know what they're doing (yet) which is the underlying issue.

 

[Murloc]

Nothing wrong with calculators but...

People who are adept with a slide rule tend to know intuitively when an answer "seems" right. People using calculators don't seem to recognize wrong answers. They don't recognize when the magnitude of a number doesn't make sense given the problem.

I get frustrated with co-workers who (for example) don't seem to grasp that a given amount of production cannot ever decrease by more than 100%. Some people have had to have that explained more than once. They just punch numbers into a calculator and whatever it says must be right.

that's not caused by calculators but bad teaching.
It happens when schools provide just a superficial and utilitarian learning.
Use of calculators during exams is often restricted to force students to actually learn stuff. That, or just a massive amount of symbols instead of numbers to make the calculator useless.

I think your coworkers just went to a pleb school.

If you become a formula and calculator monkey you will get stuff like arctan wrong because you're not actually thinking about what you're doing, you're being a monkey.

So my opinion is that calculators are not bad but the teacher has to keep in mind the consequences of abuse and actively support intuition when dealing with numbers by providing examples (like at the end of an exercise say why it makes sense and what results would impossible). A bored teacher will not do this, but someone dedicated is perfectly able to instill this sense in teh students.

 

[Rubycon]

Still have my Curta.

 

[olds]

I remember in grade school learning to use an abacus.
Don't remember how though.

 

[kranky]

Still have my Curta.

So I had to go off and google what that thing was. What a cool machine. I thought it was larger until I saw a photo of someone holding one.

Have you ever taken it apart?

 

[Fritzo]

That merely boils down to somebody knowing what they're doing enough to recognize when something is amiss. Why you're thinking that has anything to do with how somebody calculates something is beyond me. I have massive spreadsheets that go through lots of calculations simultaneously, but I know when the data is wrong. It has nothing to do with ease of calculation and everything to do with the persons grasp on what they're actually calculating.

One could argue that the newest generation of workforce seems to do this the most, and the newest generation was also raised on calculators... but you're dragging out a causation out of a mere correlation at best. This new generation is also the most likely to not know what they're doing (yet) which is the underlying issue.

I think his point was that using a slide rule lets you see relationships in logarithms...something people today don't understand because of using calculators.

 

[JTsyo]

pssh slide rules. Abacus is where it's at.

 

[Merad]

Still have and love my Ti-89 that's 12+ years old now. My watch has a rotary slide rule built in though.

 

[disappoint]

Nothing wrong with calculators but...

People who are adept with a slide rule tend to know intuitively when an answer "seems" right. People using calculators don't seem to recognize wrong answers. They don't recognize when the magnitude of a number doesn't make sense given the problem.

I get frustrated with co-workers who (for example) don't seem to grasp that a given amount of production cannot ever decrease by more than 100%. Some people have had to have that explained more than once. They just punch numbers into a calculator and whatever it says must be right.

As others have pointed out that has nothing to do with the tool they use to calculate and more to do with how they were taught. We were always taught to "guesstimate" and make sure our answer made sense.

TI calcs (and to a lesser extent Casio calcs) finally caught up with and in some cases surpassed the HP calcs in the mid 90s, mainly due to HP canceling the advanced models on their drawing boards.

My HP 28S was stolen in my last semester of undergrad and replaced with an HP 48G, which I think most of the "higher end" HP calcs today seem to still be based on over 20 years later. I still preferred the 28S so maybe one day I'll grab one from eBay.

HP calcs were a thing of beauty too. Postfix aka reverse polish: so much win!

 

[Possessed Freak]

Ah the only thing I remember about slide rules, C and D were multiplication.

 

[crashtestdummy]

I came in expecting a slide rule thread.

Was not disappointed.

Edit: On an unrelated note, how the hell does TI still get away with charging $100 for a Ti-84????

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I came in expecting a slide rule thread.

Was not disappointed.

Edit: On an unrelated note, how the hell does TI still get away with charging $100 for a Ti-84????

 

[IronWing]

His directions seem to be wrong for multiplication.

Example: calculate 2.3 × 3.4

• Move the cursor to 2.3 in the D scale.
• Slide the leftmost '1' on C to the cursor.
• Move the cursor to 3.4 on the C scale.
• The cursor is on the D scale at 7.8. This is the answer.

Following his directions yields 6.5 on the D scale.

 

[SMOGZINN]

pssh slide rules. Abacus is where it's at.

That is right, I personally use the internet abacus to figure out everything.

 

[DrPizza]

I see some people bragging about their TI-89's. Having read a few threads here, good for them, because I have this inkling that without the TI-89, they'd fall flat on their face in any course that wouldn't allow that calculator.

 

[skyking]

Nothing wrong with calculators but...

People who are adept with a slide rule tend to know intuitively when an answer "seems" right. People using calculators don't seem to recognize wrong answers. They don't recognize when the magnitude of a number doesn't make sense given the problem.

I get frustrated with co-workers who (for example) don't seem to grasp that a given amount of production cannot ever decrease by more than 100%. Some people have had to have that explained more than once. They just punch numbers into a calculator and whatever it says must be right.

I think it is about brain flexibility. Things gets all stiff and cobbled up without some regular workouts, punching keys does nothing.

 

[Rubycon]

So I had to go off and google what that thing was. What a cool machine. I thought it was larger until I saw a photo of someone holding one.

Have you ever taken it apart?

Yes I have. It's a marvel of engineering!

 

[kranky]

Yes I have. It's a marvel of engineering!

I knew it!

 

[brianmanahan]

I see some people bragging about their TI-89's. Having read a few threads here, good for them, because I have this inkling that without the TI-89, they'd fall flat on their face in any course that wouldn't allow that calculator.