On Fri, 16 Feb 2018 12:11:39 +0000
"Dan S. MacAbre" wrote:

JNugent wrote:


You can't make proper informed use of a calculator unless you have
an idea of roughly what the outcome should be anyway.

For instance, if you press a button twice or omit a character, your
answer will be out by a factor of 10. If you can't recognise that
when you see it, you may decide that the incorrect result is, in
fact, correct.

I remember at uni-level maths, one of the first things discussed was
how to quickly estimate (if only to the nearest order of magnitude)
what a solution might look like. It seemed obvious to me at the
time, but I am still surprised at how often even educated people fail
to spot what ought to be glaring errors.

This was not an optional skill if you used a slide rule, and most
engineers did. I recall seeing one of the first Sinclair Executives
while at university, and I bought a do-it-yourself Cambridge soon after
that. But it ate batteries...

--
Joe