Slashdot Mirror
'Calculators Killed the Standard Statistical Table' (sas.com)
theodp writes: In an obituary of sorts for the standard probability tables that were once ubiquitous in introductory statistics textbooks, Rick Wicklin writes: "In my first probability and statistics course, I constantly referenced the 23 statistical tables (which occupied 44 pages!) in the appendix of my undergraduate textbook. Any time I needed to compute a probability or test a hypothesis, I would flip to a table of probabilities for the normal, t, chi-square, or F distribution and use it to compute a probability (area) or quantile (critical value). If the value I needed wasn't tabulated, I had to manually perform linear interpolation from two tabulated values. I had no choice: my calculator did not have support for these advanced functions. In contrast, kids today have it easy! When my son took AP statistics in high school, his handheld calculator (a TI-84, which costs about $100) could compute the PDF, CDF, and quantiles of all the important probability distributions. Consequently, his textbook did not include an appendix of statistical tables."
I just don't see this as a problem. At some point, you have to consider whether NOT walking to school in 12 feet of snow up hill both ways somehow contributed to a better education that allows us to do the amazing things we do these days. Some things simply harder, without being better.
Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
...is TI-84s still cost $100.
First. World. Problems: We no longer waste paper to print archaic Mathematical tables /sarcasm OH NOES!
You know what else is "dead" ?
* Slide rule
* Tables of common Logarithms
* Tables of Trigonometric functions
Guess what, nobody is stopping you from buying those tables from old CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics which have them.
Apparently you didn't get the memo that a cheap calculator is "good enough."
What's next?
Whining that we don't have rotary telephones? Black and White televisions?
Now we're getting to the point where: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
All of those are functionally better than a calculator. A slide rule, abacus or knots on a string all provide a spacial metaphor for values. These spacial metaphors allow your brain to visualize a value's meaning, even when transitioning to calculator. Without this, the answer is just a food pellet delivered by magic when the feeder bar is pressed.
Freshman year in college, learning how to use a sliderule was mandatory. A year later they were gone, completely disappeared. The TI SR-50 killed them.
Freshman year in college, learning how to use a sliderule was mandatory. A year later they were gone, completely disappeared. The TI SR-50 killed them.
"Anyone who can't use a slide rule is a cultural illiterate and should not be allowed to vote."
(Robert Heinlein, in "Have Space Suit, Will Travel")
No sig today...