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Re: Would You Believe?



Paul O Johnson writes,

"What I still don't understand is why the calculator manufacturers cannot
design
their machines to display the answers with the correct number of SD based on
the
precision of the factors entered. It would be so simple, and it would sure
save a
lot teeth gnashing."

Wouldn't this only serve to perpetuate ignorance regarding significant
figures? I think simply having students get "the right answer" because
their calculators are smarter about significant figures than they are is not
what we want. Don't we want to bring students to an understanding about why
the notion of significant figures is important. If we are going to teach
more than just concepts, bringing students to some level of calculation
ability, we must couch our teaching of doing calculations in terms of
significant figures and uncertainty.

Tom DeBrita