I calculate square roots manually using Newton-Raphson even though I was "taught" the manual method, it's been entirely useless to me. However Newton-Raphson continues to be useful.
I believe manual calculation of square roots to be a canonical example of "useless rote knowledge." -- Charles On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 3:42 AM, Heather Madrone <[email protected]> wrote: > On 10/5/10 9:01 PM October 5, 2010, ss wrote: >> >> Incidentally how many people on Silk can recall how to calculate the >> square >> root of a number manually? >> > > Not that I was a product of the Indian education system, but I can calculate > a square root manually. It's not a particularly difficult process, although > it is tedious. > > My children, however, who were educated by the finest math program I could > find (Singapore math, developed for and used by the schools in Singapore) > have not had to calculate square roots. Instead, they have solved a great > many difficult and interesting word problems > > -- > Heather Madrone ([email protected]) http://www.madrone.com > http://www.sunsplinter.blogspot.com > > I'd love to change the world, but they won't give me access to the source > code. > > > >
