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Last week I needed an arctangent at work. Looked it up on Wikipedia and let Wolfram Alpha compute the result. It was partly my fault because I was using Blende
by stesch 10y ago
Last week I needed an arctangent at work. Looked it up on Wikipedia and let Wolfram Alpha compute the result.
It was partly my fault because I was using Blender instead of a CAD system. Had to rotate something to align it to the base plane for 3D printing. But hey, I'm no engineer and it worked. And all for a door stopper with the company logo.
- ddebernardy 10y agoPerhaps you're not aware of your math literacy? You knew, remembered, and understood what an arctangent is. That makes you tremendously more math literate than the typical non-STEM educated Joe or Jane.
- moron4hire 10y agoAnd, according to the article, more math literate than most STEM-educated people, too.
- ddebernardy 10y agoSuggests the article, yeah. I honestly don't buy that - citation needed. After some time STEM-educated people might not always remember exactly how what they learned works, sure. I certainly don't, for one. But I'd be hard pressed to believe they don't remember it exists - i.e. or at least remember enough to google their way into rediscovering it and finding a shortcut to solve their problem.
- alejohausner 10y agoPerhaps the biggest skill I got from university was knowing enough context to know which references (books, Wikipedia) I should consult, to solve a technical problem.