On 20/08/2011 1:30 PM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> Doing arithmetic "without thinking" is how we ended up with Verizon Math
> Fail.
>

Straw man, straw man.


>>
>> You don't know how to do mental arithmetic, then?
>
> Nobody ever needs to compute the exact quotient of two 4-figure numbers
> mentally. It's not necessary. You just need to be able to estimate the
> answer with sufficient accuracy.

True.

> (Something which apparently a great
> many people can't do for some reason...)
>

Again true.


>
> Practising something you're going to need to do every single day of your
> life is worth while. Practising something which you will never, ever
> need to actually do is pointless.
>

Well it surprises me that you never need to calculate something when you 
are away from some form of calculator.

> Nobody computes 6-figure quotients mentally. Nobody needs to.
>

True.

>> And BTW adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying is arithmetic
>> not maths.
>
> ....which was the entire point of my rant, yes. Our "maths" class
> covered *only* arithmetic, and nothing else.
>

You have said before that your school was not a particularly good one. 
But then I was taught arithmetic in primary school and we did not 
progress to mathematics until secondary school.

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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