[Gllug] Light the blue touchpaper...

[Jason Clifford]

On Wed, 17 Mar 2004, Pete Ryland wrote:

> Calculating tan x with pencil and paper, I would argue, certainly doesn't
> help you understand any principles behind it.  It may give you RSI and help
> you remember your times tables and better your attention to detail, but the
> way you'd calculate it is different from its application.

In what way is learning attention to details or knowing ones times tables 
a bad thing? It seems to me that the latter was once of the building 
blocks of primary education when I grew up. Once it was in place it became 
possible to teach all kinds of other things upon that foundation.

> Neither does calculating it by hand in the above case.  You'd just waste an
> afternoon you could have spent learning something else.

You've selected one particular example that doesn't actually address the 
point I raised. Basic maths isn't "calculate tan x" - it's building those 
elementary blocks upon which all the interesting things depend.

> Perhaps, but wrote-learning times tables hasn't helped me in over 15 years.

No? Have you never needed to know what x * 8 was quickly? Have you never 
had to check a reciept in a shop to determine an error? Obviously you've 
never worked in a job where you needed to determine the price of x * 
$number_of_items quickly for whatever reason.

I've been in all those positions and knowing the basics has enabled me to 
do my job in those circumstances far more efficiently.

Again, once you have the basics learned properly (actually I'd rather we 
taught methods to calculate times tables rather than trying to remember 
them) you are able to learn all those interesting things and actually 
understanding them.

Jason Clifford
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