No wonder kids cant these days.....

[Geordie Spark]

Yeah we have all heard (and many said ime sure) Kids cant do ..... these days.

A while back I was talking to a college lecturer who said 90% of the kids they get these days cant do basic maths or even use a calculator.
Now I found this odd, not so much that they cant do maths but they cant use a calculator.
Now I was pretty good at maths back in the day and we were rarely aloud to use a calculator but lets face it they are not to hard to use....

Well I should say they never USED to be hard to use!

Now I think I may understand why kids cant use calculators, probably because you need a damn PHD to work it!
I had a test the other day which I was told I would need a scientific calculator for, Now ive had the same scientific calculator since I was at school, served me well through college and everything else now I couldnt find the damn thing the other day so went and brought a new one only to find when I sat this test that the answers this thing gave me were damn near useless!

I had to do 20 x 0.72, Now I know this is going to give me a answer somewhere near 15 but ime not good enough to work out exactly what.
So imagine my suprise when this bloody thing gives me a answer of 29/2!

Dont get me wrong ime sure thats a answer someone somewhere may need but I dont!
Hell I dont even know how to change that to a realistic answer I mean WTF!
Are you supposed to take instruction manuals into exam halls these days or what?

And before anyone says I know its a fractional equivalent but I could of worked that out in my head without the calculators assistance

You're not alone there bonny lad .. I can't use them scientific things either.

In my day, we used Slide Rules but the only thing I used them for was stirring paint.

 

[Silly Sausage]

Calculators, slide rules...
Pah! Log tables every time!

 

[Geordie Spark]

Calculators, slide rules...
Pah! Log tables every time!

Oh aye ... I was good with them!


In fact .. I think I still have mine somewhere ....

 

[shanky887614]

Oh aye ... I was good with them!


In fact .. I think I still have mine somewhere ....

I know what a log table is but I have never seen one?

Can you post a pic for everyone that is missing out

 

[Geordie Spark]

I know what a log table is but I have never seen one?

Can you post a pic for everyone that is missing out

It's a book of tables and there are two books.

The first is Logarithms and the second is Antilogarithms.

So for example you have a couple of huge numbers that you want to multiply together and know that doing it longhand with pen and paper will take forever you get you book of Logarithm tables out and in it you find numbers that correspond with what you're multiplying.

Think of it as like coding a secret message.

You add these numbers together then look for the sum of numbers in your Antilogarithms table and it gives you the answer like de coding a secret message.

It's difficult to explain here without having the things in front of you and since I haven't used them since about 1972 my memory is a bit shaky

The slide rule was developed from these tables.

THIS will explain it for you Logarithm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Picture here: http://www.girishgovindan.com/uploads/mt/Log_Antilog.pdf

 

[i=p/u]

Google is every table yo can dream of. Is why they think we don't need to learn anymore.

 

[Geordie Spark]

Google is every table yo can dream of. Is why they think we don't need to learn anymore.

And when you can't get online what do you use then?

 

[i=p/u]

I'm with you , my grandad and I do my mums books and we use pen and paper. And it's good to use brain

 

[i=p/u]

What's that film with Bruce Willis where there is a bug that kills the internet ..

 

[Geordie Spark]

What's that film with Bruce Willis where there is a bug that kills the internet ..

I don't know that one.

 

[i=p/u]

Where he goes into geeks house and has last every working cb radio .. When there's meltdown.. Anyway let it happen

 

[Geordie Spark]

Who is Bruce Willis???

 

[Badged01]

Calculators, slide rules...
Pah! Log tables every time!

Thats take me back, I just caught the back end of using a slide rule in maths. Wouldn't have a clue how to use it now other than knowing you could pull the middle bit out and move a cursor!

And definately prefer using my calculator to log tables .......

 

[Badged01]

Who is Bruce Willis???

Think he's some German thats into acting ...

 

[Engineer54]

They still are, nothing has changed you still have to show your workings.

Now you are joking, ....Nothing has changed?? No such thing as multiple choice questions in any C&G or any other of the exams i sat. You had to answer the question posed with the correct answer. In other words if you hadn't done the studying and the revision, you failed!! lol!!