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Engineer in 1969 : “nwords” Engineer today: “no that’s my dad, I just graduated and started working here too. Yea my grandfather too.” “I grew up pretty conservative”
Am engineer, made my own slide rule for fun
Still check basic arithmetic because I’d rather overestimate my own incompetence than underestimate it
Engineering mathematics is easy. Follow simple rules, follow simple formula, do basic algebra, don’t screw up ur units. The issue is when numbers start to get involved. I’ve made more mistakes simply doing the number wrong than anything else. This is why using code to solve all ur problems is goated
Sure, if we ignore the fact that those engineers had all of their work checked by people we called calculators.
That sounds like women’s work, of course we’re going to ignore it
Plotwist; It’s an AI calculator and the answer is 80085
“Is the answer 3?”
Ai taking a drag from a cigarette: “Sure thing kid, why not?”
“Wow, so smart.”
I genuinely do hate AI, this is joke about it constantly validating everything asked of it instead of actually being useful.
And a team of 20 black girls who solved all their math problems
I’m just testing that the calculator works. It’s part of the scientific process, sweaty
Okay look, some of the math I do on a daily basis is like 5 levels above basic addition (it looks like I’ve written a whole ass sentences of gibberish) but like what if they changed it? I’d rather be sure that 2+2 still equals 4 than be wrong and the thing I’m working on ends up making expensive sounds.
There’s also just removing the cognitive load of having to process this information. You’re allowed to look up the answer (that’s what a calculator and the slide rule do).
Using the tools you have to speed up your work doesn’t make you a worse engineer than those in the past. You’re building off their work so you don’t have to constantly literally reinvent the wheel.
Technology is invented for the sake of usage. It’s cultural calvinism that postulates that the „harder“ work is the „better“ work.
Yup. If I’m not ballparking, all math goes through a calculator. It’s already there, and I’m already using it. “Trust, but verify”.
I am guessing you are an engineer of some sort.
Engineer of wide surfaces - also known as a cleaner.
I’m a Cognitive Developmental Transportation Engineer … aka school bus driver.
You can’t calculate 2+2 with a slide rule
You could probably do log_10(10²×10²) instead?
It’s the same as 2*2
Moves C index to 2 on the D scale
Moves indicating line to 2 on the C scale
Reads 4 on the D scale
Good thing 2+2 and 2*2 yield the same answer. Would have to bust out the addiator otherwise
abacus say what?
Yoy can use 2 normal rules to add/rest 2 numbers, but you can’t do it in a slide rule with its logarithm scales. But luckily there are solutions out there
Well, but fails with 3+3, there an US engineer must use still an addiator. Nowadays it’s easier with an pocket calculator.
Maybe you can’t
The issue is that the floor on confidence in knowledge is now basically nothing.
Why is it that 8th graders in 1990 could do solid algebra and polynomials on paper and not need help? Nothing about the math has changed.
Slide rules do not do basic math, that’s a poor comparison. People that did higher math on slide rules only used it for part of the problem dealing with logarithms, and that was a shorthand for larger approximation tables in books. That’s necessary help. Solving for 2+2 is not. That’s for little children that count on their fingers. If you’re not in the “WTF?” camp, you’re part of the problem.
Difficulty performing mental arithmetic doesn’t necessarily correlate with poor overall intelligence or inability to grasp higher math concepts. In a world where we all have calculators in our pockets, there is no reason to bar someone from studies or a career involving higher mathematics simply for being neurologically atypical, nor to shame them for whichever coping strategies allow them to perform.
Slide rules do not do basic math, that’s a poor comparison
He doesn’t know that. None of the idiots advocating regressive imbecilism actually understand what they are talking about.
As long as they don’t ask ChatGPT.
Now show the prompt lol
Sure
They say we can stand on the shoulders of giants, but first we gotta climb a friggin giant
just cut it’s achilles tendon and it’ll lower itself for you
… And now read idiots who advocate that it is OK to not understand analogue clock:
I saw that. It’s fucking breathtaking, the apologists for stupidity.
If I go start an account on a .ml instance and claim letters and numbers are colonial, patriarchal constructs and should be eliminated, I’ll be the most popular poster until I accidentally make everyone illiterate out of spite.
Yeah, and the level of upvotes these idiots have is truly shocking.
Lemmy is no way better than Reddit and the Idiocracy is a documentary.
I feel like fucking vomiting just thinking about it.
guess the new “go touch grass” is going to be “go read a dial clock”
Wasn’t that disproven by Snopes?
Idiots on Lemmy were disproved? News to me.
If those clock actually didn’t exist anymore, than it really would be no point in knowing how to read them.
And there’s close to no point nowadays. If I was making some school curriculum, I would probably keep them because they are useful for teaching fractions. But I would look for an alternative.
They’re far less common than digital clocks now. Same with the bullshit cursive.
I genuinely don’t know where I would even find an analog clock anymore outside of school and I haven’t been in school for more than 20 years. genuinely do not remember the last time I’ve seen an analog clock, and I work in a lot of public government offices who are usually pretty far behind the times but even they use digital clocks. to the point that I just went to look had a picture of one and it actually takes me a second to read now.
I don’t understand why people are so obsessed on holding on to knowledge that is not relevant to your daily life, digital clocks are objectively better at the task of telling the time and it’s what exists everywhere in life now I don’t really fault anyone for not being able to read an analog.
If I had to Hazard a guess I guess it’s probably just a lack of empathy? Or maybe that’s not quite the correct word but inability to put yourself in another’s place. They can’t Envision someone not having knowledge that they have unless that person is stupid.
The thing that gets me is that calling it a skill feels like a stretch. You need like 4 pieces of information to read an analog clock, most of which can be gleaned from looking at it. Sure, you might not be able to read one instantaneously without practice, but it isn’t exactly calculus.
You really can’t glean the information just by looking at it if you’ve literally never seen one before in your life. It’s hard to Envision if you’re just used to it, like I said I was a little slow to read it but I still know how I’m just not used to it so it’s no longer instant . But I also can understand that if you’ve literally never seen one in your life and never had it mentioned to you you would really have no way to know what the difference between the big or the small hand was.
Now if you did sit and stare at it for long enough you could eventually figure it out as the hands moved but most people aren’t going to sit there and stare at a clock for 10min to try and figure it out.
At the end of the day even mundane things can be a skill, and I do agree that there is a substantial lack of critical thinking as the generations go on it was a problem already in my generation much less these latest ones. All That No Child Left Behind and standardized testing crap really destroyed schools hard it went from critical thinking to just memorize the answer or skip the question if you don’t know, asking questions became bad and unfortunately that’s going to follow you into adulthood
More I read USians, more I understand how come Trump was elected the second time.
There is many reasons it happened but not being able to read analog clocks was not one of them. I’m sorry that it upsets you so much that I don’t agree but I feel like there’s a better way to express it than what you chose.
Stupidity was one of them. Go figure.
me when i have no perspective
If they are taking an exam, they are not yet an engineer.
Also if you need to check simple math during your exam, you will fail super hard because you will run out of time with almost non of the work completed.
