Re: Why are TI Calcs so
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On 11/17/96 21:03, NICHOLAS P KONIDARIS II muttered something stupid about
Re: Why are TI Calcs so inferior?
>Mark -- Very Good Post, I (of course) agree whole-heartedly.
>Person who wrote the "Churning Butter Post" -- I'm afraid that your
>Calculus class IS Taught with a Ti-graphing-calculator because anyone
>who compares butter churning, which is a _Process_ to an abstract set of
>ideas, is being Taught A Process.
>Everyone knows that:
>y(x) = x^n
>y'(x) = n * x^(n - 1)
>Something my ti-92 can symbolically show me. I'm sure you could even
>program it into a ti8x. Now, can any of you soft-minded HS students
>PROVE it? Qualitatively and Quantitativly?
Yeah, smartass, I can.
Here's your question: "Why do we use calculators in school?"
Here's my answer:
Welcome to the rest of the world. I don't know what sort of backwater school
you came from, where you probably did everything by hand, no doubt, and I bet
you also walked uphill to school both ways, in three feet of snow, etc.
Technology is made to make things easier. Average person Joe Q. Braindead
doesn't need to know proofs for every single law of calculus. Why? Because
not everyone is destined to be a mathematician, engineer, or any other field
which requires that knowledge. Also, those that do, we have calculators to
make it easier. Despite your views, people do learn from seeing the answers
to questions. Why do you think every math book nowadays has answers in it?
You say you own a Ti-92. Do you understand all the processes it does? When
you were in school, did you ever use a calculator, slide rule, or abacus? Did
you, while taking a test, say "I think I'll concentrate more on processers,
and stop using this calculator." No, you probably didn't. Why? Because it's
not as convenient. If you're really so big on pencil-and-paper, go join the
Amish. They are many of them not too far from Pittsburgh. No school after 8th
grade means no calculus, and no Ti-8x's.
Rob Linwood - <a href="mailto:rob.linwood@k-palace.com">rob.linwood@k-palace.com</a> - http://robwww.home.ml.org -=<UDIC>=-
RSA in three lines of PERL:
#!/bin/perl -sp0777i<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<j]dsj
$/=unpack('H*',$_);$_=`echo 16dio\U$k"SK$/SM$n\EsN0p[lN*1
lK[d2%Sa2/d0$^Ixp"|dc`;s/\W//g;$_=pack('H*',/((..)*)$/)
RSA in 3 lines of PERL ==> http://dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/rsa/
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* PW * Salvador Dali:Surreal Killer! Quaker Oats:Cereal Killer.
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