On 06-Oct-10 6:25 AM, ss wrote: > Rote memory of multiplication tables is all very well and may put me on a > higher intellectual plane than a supermarket assistant. But I believe you may > be unaware of how far this stupidity goes in India. > > I think there are two simple things that people need to know about > mathematics, which every school child must learn. > > 1) As maths gets more compex - part of it is plain drudgery - where you add > up > or multiply long banks of numbers. And because of this drudgery it is > possible > for the best people to make errors. > > 2) Errors in maths are not a problem as long as one takes the time to check > and cross check one's sums. Accountants do that, as do supermarket assistants > and college professors. You do that too when you are looking at your > accounts. > In real life, when you are doing these sums to re-check for accuracy or > errors > nobody is sitting on your neck to ask you to finish your sum in seconds or > minutes. Except perhaps an impatient custormer next to a slow supermarket > assistant. And in maths exams. > > It has been known for centuries that maths can be drudgery and error prone. > It > was precisely for that reason that Logarithms came into use in the 1600s.
I don't really disagree, but you may be at risk of ignoring a couple of things: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=71048 -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
