6 ms·

Did you learn arithmetic in school even though calculator exist?

• remarkEon 6mo ago
  Many did not. It's important to understand the distinction. I was in middle and high school when calculators became the standard, but they were still expensive enough that we kept the Ti-80 calculators on a backroom shelf and checked them out when there was an overnight problem set or homework assignment. In a round about way, I think I ended up understanding more about the underlying maths because of this. So, no, many did not actually learn arithmetic in school. This isn't necessarily because of the calculator, but if you don't get a student to understand what arithmetic even is then handing them a calculator may as well be like handing them a magic wand that "does numbers".
• rerdavies 6mo ago
  Interestingly, here in Canada, kids are no longer taught long division. When I was in highschool, we were taught to use slide rules, but not very seriously. And I would imagine, nobody gets taught how to use trigonometry tables anymore (at least I hope so). So, these days, you learn arithmetic very differently because calculators exist.
  • sigbottle 6mo ago
    It's been ages since I long divided lol.... I might not even remember it anymore. I'd probably do some hacky ass binary search or something (at least for easy integers)