the new math: old battle of the lovees was: PDP1 3568

Bernd Felsche

I'm sorry, but you obviously have no idea what you're talking about. I can easily get 5 sig fig on mbutt using basic lab balances (more with analytical), temperature I'll give you (usually 2 or 3), position depends...anywhere from 2 to 5 places depending on the situation, current and voltage can easily be measured to more than 3, and show me a periodic table that *only* has three sig figs. It's a legacy of slide rules (since many of the problems are hold overs from those days)

Funny, last several cars I've owned you click the button and the next display is "Distance to empty" and one of those cars is 20 years old. Hardly new tech. You're hardly selling your point. To most of the population mental math is in fact useless. They've always gotten along without it, and the world is being tailored to suit their needs cue Kornbluth's Marching Morons here.

Listed on the sticker... I believe it's by law here that they have unit pricing listed, has been for years. See above...you're not making much of a case.

I'm not against mental math. I'm stating that much of the general public was never facile with it, and that as a skill it is becoming less and less necessary to the average person. I include estimation and "Fermi" questions on all my Physics exams because I believe that it is an extremely useful skill for those in the science and engineering fields, but I am not under any illusion that it's a necessity for the unwashed mbuttes.

Bill