Do old fashioned arithmetic algorithms really need to be taught any more?

[no gnu taxes]

I'm talking about the old multiplication and long division calculation methods. I know what you are probably thinking. That I am some public school advocate, even though I was pissed as hell when my kindergarten daughter asked me if I knew the happy kwanzaa song.

But are these really useful anymore? I mean you can buy a calculator for $1 that does all these things and the software developers didn't use those methods for creation of the devices. Did you even understand why these algorithms worked at the time you were taught them?

Not trying to be controversial; just want to know what you think.

[RansomOttawa]

In the story, set sometime in the future, the young hero is accused of cheating on his A&O exams. The test administrator was described in much the same way as a stereotypical Hollywood nerd is portrayed; overweight, myopic, fingertips turning spatulate due to a lifetime spent at the keyboard.

The evidence for our hero’s cheating was that he had used zero computer time and had a zero percentage error rate. It is revealed that the “A&O” meant Apples & Oranges. The math problems dealt with division and percentages and were meant to be solved with the test computer’s calculator. Our young hero had been taught fractions by his reactionary grandfather and needed no computer time to calculate. Also, because he dealt with fraction through all of the intermediate steps of calculation, he had no rounding errors (i.e 1/3 -0.33333333...)

I would love to read this story. If you (or anyone else) can think of more details that could help me locate it either in print or online (Google has been fruitless thus far), that'd be great!

Sounds very similar in theme to "The Machine Stops" by C. S. Forester: what happens when the technology you rely on, even for your survival, starts to break down?

[Mycroft Holmes]

In detail, this is a schematic of a 4-bit adder which can add two numbers, 0-15 and produce a result from 0-31. The symbols perform the logical operations AND OR XOR on two inputs producing an output and a carry.

This is a drawing of one of the four bit chunks. The different colors represent either conductive metal traces or different doping of the silicon to get the charge to move in the desired fashion.

The whole thing (all four bits) ends up looking like this. I think it's pretty cool. It helps to understand the math beneath it though to really appreciate its beauty.

[ladyjane]

Then there was the man at the grocery store. The clerk said he owed 10.66.

He responded, “Ah, the Battle of Hastings.”

The clerk was puzzled so he told her that 1066 was the date for the Battle of Hastings.

The clerk fell silent and then said, “Can you do that for any number?”

[Hot Tabasco]

Leave the math to the Japanese and Chinese kids...we can buy their calculators.

[RansomOttawa]

E.M. Forster, that is, of Howard's End and A Passage to India fame - not C. S. Forester the Horatio Hornblower author. I always mix those up . . .

[grey_whiskers]

Some thirty years ago, I recall hearing a Chemistry professor complain that college kids were using the calculators on final exams.

His beef that when they were doing stoichiometry problems, they were using the calculator to type in molar conversions
...of the form x 1 = ... ÷ 1 = ...

Cheers!

[Minn]

Good job writing that absurd satirical question as if you were serious. Funny.

[Chode]

are yo really that stooopid or just pretending to be???

[spaced]

If you don’t have a grounding in the basics of math, using a calculator is indistinguishable from uttering a magic spell. They will have no idea whether the number appearing on the screen was calculated correctly or not.

[dr_lew]

Give an example of "rote algorithm."

Counting in base ten is a rote algorithm. Note that the Greeks didn't have this technology, for all their mathematical advancements, and that it came to Europe only in the Renaissance.

[KrisKrinkle]

“Did you even understand why these algorithms worked at the time you were taught them?”

Is that relevant? Did you understand how a calculator works when you were first taught to use one? Do you now? Does that stop you from using one?

[Thank You Rush]

“”The Trachtenberg System of speed math!””

I always hated math in school but the Trachtenberg System intrigued me and I loved working with it. I’ve tried over the years to remember the name of it - thanks!!

[BipolarBob]

What do I think? I think you should learn that happy kwanza song as soon as possible. What kind of country wants their children to grow up in a world without a happy kwanza song? If it was good enough for our forefathers and the founders of this country, then it’s good enough for us. Algorithms or AlGoreRhythms, what’s the difference? We send our children to school for interaction with others and to babysit when we are at work not for critical thinking skills. They’ll learn that on the job. maybe college . . who knows? The main thing is for our kids happiness. And that means happy kwanza songs and not boring Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Or history. or economics.

[Erasmus]

I mean you can buy a calculator for $1 that does all these things and the software developers didn't use those methods for creation of the devices.

Calculators, like all computers with math functions, could not have been designed by people who didn't know the principles involved backwards and forwards.

A little story about this.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Counting in base ten is a rote algorithm.

So, what base should children learn to count in?

Or should they not learn how to count at all?

[smokingfrog]

... or a wrist watch slide rule

[bert]

we are not discussing math, we are discussing arithmetic.

The author threw in algorithm to appear smart, but the subject is arithmetic

Arithmetic needs to be taught and learned.

[moehoward]

Talk about a chick magnet!
That thing is an automatic leg spreader.

[ak267]

I believe it still needs to be taught — teaching kids arithmetic instructs them in basic logic and causality, which is needed throughout life ... my $0.02

---

Logic...causality....the great enemies of liberalism.

Embrace your inner Rand (or Spock) :)

[Erasmus]

Well, my Dietzgen 1734 is made of mahogany, teflon, and ABS, so it will probably survive the EMP.

Except maybe for the cursor bezel, which is metal.

≤}B^)