OT: Teaching maths

Sad but very true! I'm continually surprised that people actually stare if I run a very quick checkbook balance in my head while I'm at a store deciding whether to write a check or use a charge card, or run a quick percentage with a pencil and scrap of paper during a budget meeting -- I'm quicker than the folks who drag out calculators, and just as accurate. I'm no math whiz, but everybody should be able to do simple arithmetic! By the way, I still own and know how to use a slide rule . . .

To put this on topic, I have found that often the people who do needlework are pretty good with doing arithmetic the old-fashioned (thinking) way and making practical use of plane geometry. Of course, we have to be to be sure to purchase correct amounts, to split a canvas accurately, to do any sort of designing, etc.

On Nov 9, 12:57 pm, Mary wrote: By the way, I still own and know how to use a

Is it in with your button hooks? : ))

My uncle, an engineer for over 40 years, called a slide rule a "guessing stick"

Right behind the buggy whips.

Dawne

He was right! However, if you are teaching, have an unusual total number of points on something, and need to figure the percentage for individual grades, all you have to do is set up the C and D scales once, and at a glance across one scale find the number of points, since exactly opposite you will find the percentage. Assuming you don't need the percentage closer than a half a percent, you're in business. MUCH quicker than a calculator! And MUCH quicker than using one of those silly cardboard or plastic "grade" calculators sold to teachers. Calculators and grade thingies all require multiple manipulations, and the slide rule only one. With a decent slide rule you never need trig tables, either. Finally, slide rules are also the foundation for E6-B's, which are the circular versions of a traditional slide rule and a no-battery-to-die calculator used by pilots to figure speed, fuel, weight and balance, etc. E6-B's also have a sliding insert on the back that is used to figure actual heading to use with winds, using the speed and direction of the winds

-- helpful to get to the place you're aiming for. If you know basic arithmetic and a couple of formulas and know how to figure a vector you don't need an E6-B or an electronic version, of course, but they're handy anyway.

Horses for courses But we did despair one day in Scarborough (Yorkshire) when Maureen went into a needlework shop and bought ten identically priced packs of silks; the girl on the counter got out her calculator to work out the total cost because (as she explained) the till was an old-fashioned one and didn't have the facility to do that...

And what about the idiots who insist on counting the stamps on those store saving cards - which are ALWAYS numbered. Even, as happened to me yesterday if the darned thing is full and it says all over it that when it`s full there`s £100 on it!!!

Pat

A few years ago Morrisons, the local supermarket in Scarborough, experienced a power failure for several hours. Their contingency plan swung into action and each checkouts was issued with a small, cheap calculator; unfortunately their contingency plan had not included training their staff in how to use the calculators....