Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I got an A in an assembler language class once by creating an infinite precision arithmetic library using, among other things, the long division algorithm.
The purist in me hates that as well, but it's considered acceptable to refer to one person as "them" instead of saying "him," "her," or "him or her." I try to avoid it myself, but it's not incorrect.
I would say that acceptable and correct aren't always the same thing.
I tried reading that link, but I couldn't get through more than a few paragraphs. It was just annoyingly verbose. I guess the author was trying to be humorous, but they weren't. Why couldn't they just say what they meant.
But why would you need to do this division in your real life?
How many 35 cfm registers does it take to distribute 46,873 cfm required ventilation in an office building? How many pounds of seed do you have to buy to plant 10 acres at 4,687 seeds per acre?
Yes, the majority of Americans are innumerate. That doesn't mean we have to plan to make all our children innumerate. I still remember hiring a new guy. I handed him the keys to the pickup and told him to go to the supply yard and pick up as much 4" PVC pipe as he could find, then stop by the supplier and buy enough more to make 1000 feet. He couldn't do it. If you can't do simple arithmetic, you have a mental handicap.
How many 35 cfm registers does it take to distribute 46,873 cfm required ventilation in an office building? How many pounds of seed do you have to buy to plant 10 acres at 4,687 seeds per acre?
Yes, the majority of Americans are innumerate. That doesn't mean we have to plan to make all our children innumerate. I still remember hiring a new guy. I handed him the keys to the pickup and told him to go to the supply yard and pick up as much 4" PVC pipe as he could find, then stop by the supplier and buy enough more to make 1000 feet. He couldn't do it. If you can't do simple arithmetic, you have a mental handicap.
How many people need to do such calculations on the fly without a calculator? Certainly it is useful to know how to do long division because you need it later in more complex math courses.
OTOH, very few people today need to calculate this kind of thing.
It seems to me that very few people are planting anything today - it is all done by industrial farms and they probably figure these things out on a computer if they need to.
I don't know too many people in construction who need to figure out these things either, though I suppose they might have to.
Every time, I bake and need to double a recipe, triple a recipe or divide a recipe by half or thirds, I can go wash and dry my hands and then grab a device with an app or I could take the 5 seconds to figure it all out in my head and just proceed with the job.
How many people need to do such calculations on the fly without a calculator? Certainly it is useful to know how to do long division because you need it later in more complex math courses.
OTOH, very few people today need to calculate this kind of thing.
It seems to me that very few people are planting anything today - it is all done by industrial farms and they probably figure these things out on a computer if they need to.
I don't know too many people in construction who need to figure out these things either, though I suppose they might have to.
I use long division regularly when I calculate how many miles I got to the gallon after filling up. And I don't need a calculator to do it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Silly! Everyone knows that! 
