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Calculator Flaw Forces Recall in Virginia
Jivecat writes "CNN is reporting that TI is recalling 11,000 calculators issued to students in Virginia because of a flaw that would give them an unfair advantage on standardized tests. A 12-year-old discovered that by pressing two keys at once, the calculators will convert decimals to fractions. The tests require the students to know how to do this with pencil-and-paper." So the calculator is being recalled because it's not crippled enough. Maybe it's a good time to question the wisdom of issuing expensive electronics to students in the first place, though I'm sure the calculator companies would rather you didn't.
In my undergraduate electromagnetics class, the professor was adamant that he would never allow calculators on his exams, but he'd generiously allow anyone to use a slide rule (assuming we could find them and learn how to operate them).
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
Another way to think of it:
x = 0.4523232323...
100x = 45.232323232323...
99x = 44.78
9900x = 4478
x = 4478/9900