09 Feb February 2017 Hint of the Month – CALCULATORS!!
Well, I guess this is what happens when you have been brainwashed to think like an engineer – I end up discussing calculators!!
I have often said most regular calculators do math incorrectly, while scientific calculators do it properly. The correct process to do math is you do multiplication and division first, then you do addition and subtraction. So here is an example:
2+3×4.
If you put this into a regular calculator, the answer you will receive is 20. This regular calculator simply does the math left to right. 2+3=5, then 5×4=20.
Now, a scientific calculator will do the multiplication first and then addition. So with this example, you will type the numbers in just as you see it, but the scientific calculator will do multiplication first and then add. So it sees 3×4 and does that calculation, which is 12. It then adds 2 to the 12 for the CORRECT answer of 14.
So there is my example and Hint of the Month. Be careful with the answers you get from some calculators!!!!!
Oh well, blame my dad for this boring thought process!!!! He was the first engineer in our family!!