Advanced math calculator how to#
Advanced math calculator plus#

Mental manipulation of numbers or use of pen and paper to quickly multiply or divide trains the mind to do what good quarterbacking requires. They were failing because they could not decipher simple algebraic functions which required using common denominators.Ī good quarterback needs to be able to think fast and make correct decisions in fractions of a second.

Advanced math calculator how to#

I give them a calculator and show them how to use the fraction key.” Years later, I had some of her students in my Algebra 1 class. I am sadly reminded of the fourth grade math teacher who, when asked about the difficulty in teaching fractions to fourth graders, wailed at me, “I have neither the time nor the patience to teach them fractions. Now what do those young students do when, later in an algebra one course, they encounter the addition of two algebraic fractions? When they encounter a/b + c/d, not having learned how to calculate common denominators with numbered fractions, they will not have the faintest idea of how to acquire a common denominator using lettered variables. This key enables students using one of them to add two fractions with different denominators without first having to find their common denominator. There is a fraction key found on modern scientific calculators. I would estimate, as the Algebra ½ student should also, that the answer will be slightly larger than (6 x 2) followed by twelve zeroes.Īnother problem that arises for students using a scientific calculator too early in mathematics is the damage done as they learn where and how to use the fraction key on the calculator before they know how to find common denominators correctly!

There is a certain satisfaction in being able to estimate the result of multiplying 5,500,310 times 2,206,213 without a calculator, and then, taking pencil and paper, seeing how close you came.

Letting students become familiar with a calculator late in Algebra 1, however, makes using one easier when they get to Algebra 2. And I agree with him! There are not too many problems in the last few lessons of algebra one that allows use of the calculator anyway.Īctually, the scientific calculator is not really needed until lesson forty-three of Algebra 2, when trigonometric functions are first introduced. This is why John Saxon did not believe in the student using a calculator until the last twenty or so lessons in algebra one. I will wager the average eighth or ninth grade math student cannot estimate the process of either adding or multiplying large numbers.

Whether or not they use a calculator, their answer has to be a shade smaller than the sum of 24 + 36 + 30 + two more zeroes, or slightly smaller than 9000! Then have them add the numbers on paper and see if they added them correctly. Have them add the numbers 2386 + 3588 + 2986 and tell them, before they actually add them, to first “estimate” what the answer will be. And it is not that I do not like calculators I do use one, but only when absolutely necessary.” When I approach parents and teachers with these questions, a student will invariably say to me, “But you're smarter than I am.” To which I reply, “I am not smarter than you, I am just older than you. But what if students just blindly punched in the numbers, and left off a zero? How would they know that 2,787,840 is not the correct answer to the product of 5280 x 5280? This concept of using scientific notation to estimate the multiplication of large numbers was introduced in both Math 87 and Algebra ½.Ĭhecking our answer with a calculator, we would find the product of 5280 x 5280 to actually be 27,878,400.

Advanced math calculator plus#

The answer will be a bit larger than 25,000,000, but an estimate of 5 x 5 plus six zeros, would be a pretty close answer. Then ask them what the product of 5280 x 5280 would be.įollowing their frantic search for the calculator you have hidden, you will find that without the calculator, most young students cannot even estimate the answer for you. Ask eighth or ninth grade students what the square root of 169, 196, or 225 is and you will be listening to a very long silence coupled with receiving an equally long blank stare from them.