Not true at all. You can have any device you want, that will give you any
answer you want, but it will just sit there and act stupid if you don't know
what to ask it. Even then, you have to now if it is giving you the right
answer. Take the segmented circle problem under discussion. There is no way
that any calculator is going to figure that out for you. You have to know
what you are wanting to do, lay it out and devise a formula (whether it is a
standard one or one you devised yourself). Only then, fed the correct
formula, is that calculator of any use and all it is then doing is replacing
the trig tables that yo feel are better. When ariving at and asnswer, before
commiting time and wood to that number, you will want to turn that formula
around, work it backwards and see if it is still correct. Many mistakes can
be found this way. The calculator is a dumb slave to the human brain
commanding it. If you don't know what you are doing, that device will do
nothing.

"Prometheus" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 13:56:34 GMT, "CW" wrote:

Not.

You don't think so? I've got a calculator from 1996 laying around
somewhere that can solve just about any calculus problem by typing in
solve( and then the problem. Same for algebra, trig, or any other
branch of math you care to name. I don't imagine that they've gotten
less powerful over time.

But that's the extreme case- I know a lot of people who can't do long
division, and don't care to know how because they have a calculator.
But then when they don't have a calculator handy, they're lost. That
would indicate to me that they don't understand the math, they just
know how to operate a calculator.

"Prometheus" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 01:24:35 GMT, "CW" wrote:
That, and dependancy on calculators seems to interfere with people
fully understanding the math.