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Would you notice if your calculator was lying? Well no, because thats the point of calculators, right? You trust them to get it right but if its something impo
by codeulike 7y ago
Would you notice if your calculator was lying?
Well no, because thats the point of calculators, right? You trust them to get it right but if its something important you run it through twice just in-case you made a mistake.
Its like saying "Would you notice if your coffee machine was adding a bit of alcohol to your coffee?" . We're obviously not expecting mundane appliances to do weird shit to us, and it would mostly be a waste of time and energy to worry about things like that.
- mkl 7y agoCalculators generally don't lie [1], but people do frequently make mistakes pressing their buttons. Calculators' accuracy cannot be trusted, because people's accuracy cannot be trusted. I think this experiment is really simulating things like entering mistakes, and you should pay attention and notice when the numbers seem off. I just finished marking an exam question that depended heavily on calculator work, and quite a few people need to work on their calculator mistrust... [1] Well, they do! But only things like small rounding errors that usually don't matter.
- codeulike 7y agoDealing with operator error is different from having doubts about the accuracy of an appliance. For quite a lot of things done on a calculator, trying to judge whether the numbers seem 'right' is going to be difficult. A more reasonable way to reduce operator error is to key the calculation through the device a couple of times and make sure you get the same answer.
- mkl 7y agoFor purely keying errors, yes, but at least as big a problem are errors in translating formulas to the calculator, like leaving out parentheses, and these errors will probably just be repeated.