Am 10.12.2010 14:39, schrieb Invisible:

> As some of you may recall, I went to a school for stupid people. Perhaps
> unsurprisingly, our "maths lessons" consisted *only* of filling out
> countless billions of long-division sheets.
>
> I mean, seriously. Knowing how to add, subtract, multiply and divide
> (not to mention *estimate*!) is important. But dividing 6-digit numbers
> giving an exact result and a remainder? When the **** am I *ever* likely
> to need to do /that/? And *if* I do, I'll use a calculator. Obviously.
>
> I understand that people need to know how to do division. I have no idea
> why they need to practise double-sized sheets with 40 quotients per side
> featuring 6-figure numbers. Hell, even NASA used a slide rule instead of
> pencil and paper! WTF?

Hollywood lied to you about the moment in the Apollo 13 mission when the 
astronauts asked the ground grew to double-check their maths: They did 
/not/ use slide rules in that situation, but indeed pen & paper, because 
slide rules don't help with simple addition of numbers.

As for divisions, AFAIK slide rules weren't used back then except for 
quick estimates. Precise calculations would either be done by a single 
computer requiring huge amounts of electricity, or by a room full of 
computers requiring huge amounts of coffee.

Back then, computer was an actual job, requiring highly trained people. 
After division, they would have learned how to interpolate using 
logarithmic and trigonometric tables and stuff.

I'd also say it was good for our generation to know how to add, 
subtract, multiply and divide without a pocket calculator, because you'd 
probably not carry one around with you all the time back then. Remember, 
we didn't have cell phones with pocket calculator apps in our pocketses 
wherever we went.

> That's actually kinda shocking, when you think about it. It's like
> saying that being an author is about good spelling and grammar. Oh,
> sure, that's *part of* being a good author. A pretty friggin' /tiny/
> part, though. JKR didn't get to where she is today by using punctuation
> correctly. She got there by convincing Warner Brothers to make her books
> into big-budget films. Oh, wait...

Not really. The books were amazingly popular before the movies. I'm 
pretty sure JKR didn't have to beg - if anyone did any begging, it was 
most likely Warner Brothers.

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Invisible escreveu:
> At this point DKJ peered over my shoulder, and pointed out that what I 
> had just done was "integral calculus", and some guy called Laplace had 
> invented it 200 years ago. He showed me the general formula for 
> integrating a polynomial. I was kind of suspicious at the exact integral 
> coefficients; of all the possible real numbers in existence, that seems 
> like a rather large coincidence. None the less, I went home and managed 
> to find my dad's old calculus book.
> 
> Now it actually made perfect sense. :-P

You should really have gone to a special school of another kind.  Your 
parents didn't realize your math brain was running faster than those of 
other kids of your age...

calculus is tough for anyone.  I wouldn't ever be able to grasp it while 
a teen...

-- 
a game sig: http://tinyurl.com/d3rxz9

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On 12/9/2010 3:57 PM, Warp wrote:

>>> And while I took and understood a great deal of math, it wasn't until
>>> physics class that I suddenly said "Oh, *that* is what an integral is for!"
>>>
>> or trigonometry after encountering POVray
>
>    Geometry, trigonometry and in some cases even calculus has been quite
> useful in graphical-heavy and game programming.
>

Or when dealing with writing software for industrial equipment. I can't 
believe how much trig I actually used when working on machinery. It was 
necessary, some of the stuff I was dealing with were circles that had to 
line up tangent to a board, etc..

-- 
~Mike

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clipka wrote:
> Not really. The books were amazingly popular before the movies. 

My theory is that she discovered how to do *actual* magic, and used it to 
make tons of money and fame by writing best-selling books about fake magic, 
just to distract the masses.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Serving Suggestion:
     "Don't serve this any more. It's awful."

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Am 10.12.2010 22:08, schrieb Darren New:
> clipka wrote:
>> Not really. The books were amazingly popular before the movies.
>
> My theory is that she discovered how to do *actual* magic, and used it
> to make tons of money and fame by writing best-selling books about fake
> magic, just to distract the masses.

Nice one ;-)

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> Geometry, trigonometry and in some cases even calculus has been quite
 > useful in graphical-heavy and game programming.

Graphical and game programming has been quite useful in learning 
geometry, trigonometry, and in some cases even calculus.

  - Slime

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Slime <pov### [at] slimelandcom> wrote:
>  > Geometry, trigonometry and in some cases even calculus has been quite
>  > useful in graphical-heavy and game programming.

> Graphical and game programming has been quite useful in learning 
> geometry, trigonometry, and in some cases even calculus.

  Or perhaps more like: Programming has been a good incentive to learn math?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> clipka wrote:
> > Not really. The books were amazingly popular before the movies. 

> My theory is that she discovered how to do *actual* magic, and used it to 
> make tons of money and fame by writing best-selling books about fake magic, 
> just to distract the masses.

  It reminds me of the "corollary" to Clarke's third law of prediction:

  "Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology."

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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>    Or perhaps more like: Programming has been a good incentive to 
learn math?

Pretty much. I don't think it's coincidence that I got a lot better at 
math a couple of years after my family got our first computer. POV-Ray, 
Visual Basic, and JavaScript all pushed my math skills, because there 
was a real, immediate payoff to every thing I learned.

  - Slime

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On 10/12/2010 05:55 PM, nemesis wrote:

> You should really have gone to a special school of another kind. Your
> parents didn't realize your math brain was running faster than those of
> other kids of your age...

My parents followed the advice of the experts - experts who are supposed 
to know what they're talking about. And hey, I can now read and write, 
which is kind of crucial...

> calculus is tough for anyone. I wouldn't ever be able to grasp it while
> a teen...

In what sense is calculus "tough"?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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