Mission Critical Basic Arithmetic

[Circlenaut]

First, yes I can do basic arithmetic in my head fairly fast but it'll never be as fast as me quickly typing into a tabletop calculator. The reason I bring this up is because when calculating things like concentrations you don't want to screw up because of material costs and time wasted making a solution (one wrong ingredient out of 15 screws up the whole batch for a complex growth medium). Out of the last 3 labs I've worked in they've always had one of those fat fingers calculator that does just basic math next to the balances. This lab is the first that doesn't. When I asked the professor about putting a calculator there he said "do it in your head". I said sure, it's his lab. The thing is I've already screw up once because of calculation error, so now I always just pull out my phone to do calculations. Just curious what you people out there think.

Cliffs:

Do you trust your brain with mission critical calculations?

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

No. It's 2009 and technology is abundant and cheap. There's absolutely no good reason not to use it, and the professor sounds like a cynical old twat. I'm very good at mental arithmetic, but if it's critical then I will check it, at least once.

 

[Circlenaut]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
No. It's 2009 and technology is abundant and cheap. There's absolutely no good reason not to use it, and the professor sounds like a cynical old twat. I'm very good at mental arithmetic, but if it's critical then I will check it, at least once.

He's not old but he's cynical. Went to one of those German polytechnic schools. He rules the lab with an iron fist.

 

[eLiu]

I use both. As I'm typing simple arithmetic into the calculator or doing more complex math in maple or something, I try (as much as possible) to run sanity checks in my brain. For simple calculations, sanity check = do the same calculation mentally and see what I get; if something doesn't match, then re-calculate. Because really, typing stuff into a calculator or computer isn't error free either. For more complex stuff I'll make some simplifying assumptions and try to make sure the answer I get makes sense.

 

[Warman]

i only use calculators when im working with a combination of 4 digits in the calculation.

im pretty good when doing single to single digit and single to double digit calculations on my brain ( 7 x 8 , 9 x 75 , etc... ) , but ill always use calculators for single to triple digit or double to double digit calcs ( like 5 x 136, 27 x 49)

 

[JJChicken]

Originally posted by: Pippy
First, yes I can do basic arithmetic in my head fairly fast but it'll never be as fast as me quickly typing into a tabletop calculator. The reason I bring this up is because when calculating things like concentrations you don't want to screw up because of material costs and time wasted making a solution (one wrong ingredient out of 15 screws up the whole batch for a complex growth medium). Out of the last 3 labs I've worked in they've always had one of those fat fingers calculator that does just basic math next to the balances. This lab is the first that doesn't. When I asked the professor about putting a calculator there he said "do it in your head". I said sure, it's his lab. The thing is I've already screw up once because of calculation error, so now I always just pull out my phone to do calculations. Just curious what you people out there think.

Cliffs:

Do you trust your brain with mission critical calculations?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10273119-1.html

 

[Squisher]

When I'm doing my income taxes I pull out my calculator with a paper tape so I can review if all my keystrokes were correct. I worked in a bank many moons ago, you always had a hard copy to review.

 

[Jeff7]

Nope, I don't trust mine if I'm adding anything more than two 2-digit numbers.

If I go much more than that, as soon as I calculate the sum of the first column, I've forgotten one or two digits of the first number.
My short term memory for that kind of stuff seems to utterly suck.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

bring your own.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
No. It's 2009 and technology is abundant and cheap. There's absolutely no good reason not to use it, and the professor sounds like a cynical old twat. I'm very good at mental arithmetic, but if it's critical then I will check it, at least once.

QFT.