Dependant On Technology

[minerva]

Guys
I just had to reply to this one following a conversation which took place on similar lines to this thread that I had only yesterday. It took place with four of my very good friends (20- 40 year olds) who run our local computer shop. They all are in their own ways specialists within the various aspects of computing and offer in general terms a super service to our local community. The question of the quality of the teaching of mathematics was raised, and I made the point that I felt that old fashioned arithmetic skills were no longer taught as an essential basic primer to the later teaching of mathematics .This statement was pooh-poohed as not a valid point. at this juncture I posed the question "what is one divided by zero" now I got two distinctly wrong answers from the assembled group, the first - "zero" was backed up by a demonstration using a pocket calculator, when I asked what the small letter "E" in the corner of the display signified I was told briefly "nothing", the second answer proffered was almost as predictable "1", the reasoning behind this was simply that zero could not possibly alter the "one " that exists in the top line when the problem is written as a fraction.
Now I proved to all their satisfaction that the correct answer is in fact "infinity". and the "E" in the calculator was in fact the machine running out of memory and thereby giving up.
Is there a moral to be learned here?, I don't know but I always remember my great mentor
(my Grandfather) saying that Chippendale would have used chip board- had it been available to him.
It's not the method used that is important its the quality of the result and furthermore if we remember that man put men on the moon on the backs of slide rules and technology of 40+ years ago just think what today's technology should achieve .......watch this space

 

[Swede]

Guys - the solution to the battery thing is to buy them in bulk off the internet. Instead of browsing at a drug store and paying $7 for two, you can buy a tray of 'em (like 50 or 100) for less than 50 cents each. Stick the tray in a drawer of your tool chest. It'll last a decade.

You won't fret about wasting batteries anymore.

That said, my favorite measuring tool is a 4" Mitutoyo solar caliper. The feel on it is perfect, and dead-accurate. No batteries.

 

[pcw]

till now i dont have any digital calipers or measure thingamajiggies at all. maybe im bit to old school for that. i can read them just as fast as some young kids in school read the digital ones. ow, and i know how much 12 times 17 is without needing a calculator. ;D
Pascal

 

[Russel]

My nephew has just completed high school and is mathematically illiterate because he was taught to do maths on a calculator.[...]

Some technology just can't really be replaced for it's versatility and durability. The knife is a good example, I'll bet everyone reading this has one in their kitchen, or otherwise. Other technology can be very useful, but it is important to employ our brain in it's use. I learned multiplication tables using a calculator. My dad bought one of the first four bangers (add, subtract, multiply, and divide) around 1970. He sat me down to learn the multiplication tables by multiplying different numbers on the calculator and coming up with the answer in my head, then pressing the equals button. That way if I had the answer wrong, the correct answer was reinforced. I always thought that learning multiplication tables was boring until I got to do it with a calculator. He (my dad) told me that there is nothing wrong with using a calculator to learn math as long as you are thinking and using the calculator to speed things up by taking care of the simple math while you concentrate on the complex stuff. Of course, he also insisted us kids knew how to perform simple math skillfully with a pencil and paper first.

Technology can be a great benefit, but it is up to as to apply it to our benefit.

These days, I get plenty of basic math practice using my mill and lathe. It's kind of funny, sometimes when I've been machining something late at night it takes me a little while for me to "wind down" before I can sleep.

 

[Jeremy_BP]

I think a mark of being truly good with technology is being able to get by without it.

I can say that I use my computer all the time. I use a calculator. I listen to music on an mp3 player. I use a word processor. But I also learn to do everything without that.
I take my math tests (calculus) without the recommended graphing calculator. I use a scientific, because I don't just want to solve the problem, I want to understand it. When the machine does the thinking for you, you lose the capacity to do the thinking for yourself.

I am growing up in an age where all I've ever known is computers (I have a picture of myself when I was three with a mac plus). So as computers make more and more obsolete, I feel the need to learn what the computer replaced. I can use a slide rule. I repair typewriters. And hell, I'm here on a machining forum. I'm also developing RepRap 3D printers. I worry about losing so much of the history of technology.

Going back to machining, I use both digital and vernier calipers. Neither of them slip or jam, and the vernier only takes half an instant longer to read than the digital. The one that's closer at hand is the one I use.

Sorry for my rather incoherent ramble.

 

[pcw]

imagine where we all would be, and what we all would be doing if electrical power went down worldwide. think that would knock us back few hundred years.
pcw

 

[Sshire]

Anyone have plans for a treadle-powered mill?

 

[mike os]

I think we are all utterly dependent on technology, even us old guys. The tech we rely on was "high tech, "needs a slide rule, cant he do it in his head?" to the old boys when we were young... & goes back to "look at him using a pointed stick, why cant he just use a club like everyone else?"

 

[steam oil]

I was recently looking through some 60s model engineer’s. Back then workshops usually consisted of a lathe with attachments, a bench drill and a grinder, plus hand tools. I wonder what it will be like in 50 years time with every one using automatic lathes and milling machine etc.

Brian