Re: Why are TI Calcs so


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Re: Why are TI Calcs so



it's funny you should say what you said about Amish.  I myself am an Amish
student dictating this very letter to my goat(boy?) and am in precalculus.


On Mon, 18 Nov 1996, ROB LINWOOD wrote:


> On 11/17/96 21:03, NICHOLAS P KONIDARIS II muttered something stupid about
> Re: Why are TI Calcs so inferior?
>
> >Mark -- Very Good Post, I (of course) agree whole-heartedly.
>
> >Person who wrote the "Churning Butter Post" -- I'm afraid that your
> >Calculus class IS Taught with a Ti-graphing-calculator because anyone
> >who compares butter churning, which is a _Process_ to an abstract set of
> >ideas, is being Taught A Process.
>
> >Everyone knows that:
>
> >y(x) = x^n
> >y'(x) = n * x^(n - 1)
>
>
> >Something my ti-92 can symbolically show me.  I'm sure you could even
> >program it into a ti8x.  Now, can any of you soft-minded HS students
> >PROVE it?  Qualitatively and Quantitativly?
>
> Yeah, smartass, I can.
>
> Here's your question: "Why do we use calculators in school?"
>
> Here's my answer:
> Welcome to the rest of the world. I don't know what sort of backwater school
> you came from, where you probably did everything by hand, no doubt, and I bet
> you also walked uphill to school both ways, in three feet of snow, etc.
> Technology is made to make things easier. Average person Joe Q. Braindead
> doesn't need to know proofs for every single law of calculus. Why? Because
> not everyone is destined to be a mathematician, engineer, or any other field
> which requires that knowledge. Also, those that do, we have calculators to
> make it easier. Despite your views, people do learn from seeing the answers
> to questions. Why do you think every math book nowadays has answers in it?
>
> You say you own a Ti-92. Do you understand all the processes it does? When
> you were in school, did you ever use a calculator, slide rule, or abacus? Did
> you, while taking a test, say "I think I'll concentrate more on processers,
> and stop using this calculator." No, you probably didn't. Why? Because it's
> not as convenient. If you're really so big on pencil-and-paper, go join the
> Amish. They are many of them not too far from Pittsburgh. No school after 8th
> grade means no calculus, and no Ti-8x's.
>
>
>
> Rob Linwood - <a href="mailto:rob.linwood@k-palace.com">rob.linwood@k-palace.com</a> - http://robwww.home.ml.org -=<UDIC>=-
>            RSA in three lines of PERL:
>            #!/bin/perl -sp0777i<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<j]dsj
>            $/=unpack('H*',$_);$_=`echo 16dio\U$k"SK$/SM$n\EsN0p[lN*1
>            lK[d2%Sa2/d0$^Ixp"|dc`;s/\W//g;$_=pack('H*',/((..)*)$/)
> RSA in 3 lines of PERL ==> http://dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/rsa/
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---
>  * PW * Salvador Dali:Surreal Killer! Quaker Oats:Cereal Killer.
>


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