WEEKLY WHINE

Calculation management devices

In many cases, people will find it necessary to do some calculations. Sometimes these are rough calculations needed only for order-of-magnitude results. Other times, exact answers are important, and every step along the way must be correct. In all cases, efficiency is key. Doing these calculations is worthless if the time needed to do them is such that the answers are obsolete by the end.

So what is the best way to do these calculations? Some like to do them by hand. Others like to utilise calculators. Still others prefer computer programs. Whatever the case may be, it's important that calculations never obstruct themselves.

Depending on which method you select, you will find an easy calculation or a difficult calculation. After all, to paraphrase someone around here, there's really no need for a sledgehammer in many cases.

How do people know what tools to use? Sometimes, the choice is made beforehand. Great stories have been told about when scientists of various types came up with ideas in, for example, restaurants. Their calculations are often saved in the form of notes on scrap paper, like a napkin. When they write books about their great discoveries, they might even include a photograph of the famous napkin.

Whiteboards are also fun places to do rough calculations. Out here, there is a generous whiteboard that is important for any calculation of any sort. The results of these calculations are left for days, even weeks, for posterity, or just because it wasn't replaced by a new calculation.

But these crude tools are not optimized for deeper uses. Many integrals are not good calculations for whiteboards. Culprits such as these so called nasty integrals are best left for calculators and computers.

For accurate solutions, modern calculations are almost the exclusive realm of calculators and computers. There is no need to determine the sine of 36° by hand if a calculator is available. In most cases, calculators can do computations more rapidly and more accurately than humans.

However, many have complained that this degrades the human mind as a sharp knife being dulled. Is that really the case?

First, be aware that knives are dulled from frequent use. It is far more important to ensure that the brain is not used for such menial tasks as determining square roots; this takes valuable time away from making more relevant calculations and inventing more unique ideas that require calculations.

I don't think it's the case that all calculations are best done by the human brain. The brain can easily add, subtract, and multiply. Dividing is a bit more difficult, as is raising to a power. When it comes to sines and cosines, though, any value that is not a multiple of 15° usually requires a calculator. A human could determine a sine, but this would require some paper and quite a bit of time. However, this also brings the risk of errors. Humans have been known to make mistakes of varying degrees.

Calculators and computers always do exactly what they are asked to do. As a result, they are only as smart as the person who uses them. Sometimes the computation can take less time by hand, especially when the calculator does not know the correct method. Programming to make the calculation can take as much time as the calculation itself.

But the reverse is true as well. Some people like to do calculations by hand, for a variety of reasons. One common reason is the perceived weakness of allowing a lesser being [the computer] to solve a problem. But using a machine to do something should not be a sign of inferiority. After all, using machines is exactly what makes humans unique. Humans are capable of developing machines that can do many tasks, which would take inordinate amounts of time for normal people.

Allowing these tasks to be done by machine is exactly the purpose of humanity. In fact, it is a sign of strength to call upon the help of others. Should it make a difference whether these others are human or electronic? Clearly not. There is nothing special about doing calculations. There is something special about doing things that require calculations.