3 ms·
I have used a calculator before, and I would expect most users to have used one before too.
by withinboredom 4y ago
I have used a calculator before, and I would expect most users to have used one before too.
- arjvik 4y agoEven within the privileged US, you can't expect people to remember obscurities of calculator notation.
- withinboredom 4y agoI’d hope so, it’s basically taught in the 2nd grade (group 4 here), along with how to read and write and it seems people still remember that ok. Google is also immensely helpful if people forget how to read numbers. /s I guess the point is, you can parse it and output it in whatever format is appropriate, regardless of how it is stored.
- outworlder 4y agoStates are also taught in schools and yet many people think New Mexico is outside the US. If you are creating software for engineers, that's a fair assumption to make (that will understand what an exponent is). The public at large? Absolutely not.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoThat is a convention only commonplace on graphical calculators and modern scientifics with formatted infix entry. A traditional scientific just shows an exponent in a reserved display location. A large segment of older adults have never used them.
- withinboredom 4y agoI’ve been seeing it since I was a child on everything from cheap little eight digit calculators to expensive calculators with rolls of paper to graphing calculators.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- outworlder 4y ago> I have used a calculator before, and I would expect most users to have used one before too. A _scientific_ calculator? Because many cheap calculators will just overflow and not use the scientific notation. You severely overestimate the... amount of data people retain from school (to put it in nice terms).