I think of the primary justification for polynomials is their simplicity (Horner scheme: evaluate using only addition and multiplication) and their ability to interpolate any smooth function (the Weierstrass theorem). No disagreement on the value of logarithms in basic finance, though. Charles Greathouse Analyst/Programmer Case Western Reserve University On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 12:33 AM, meekerdb <meekerdb@verizon.net> wrote:
Why concentrate on the quadratic. Everyone deals with loans and interest rates and investments. I'd say exponentials and logarithms are more widely useful than polynomials.
Brent Meeker
On 8/5/2012 4:52 PM, Henry Baker wrote:
I keep hoping that someone will do a better job rebutting the Times editorial. But I haven't even been able to come up with a good elementary example for the use of the quadratic formula. (Perhaps the best uses of the quadratic formula come with trig; but somehow, I can't see convincing the general population about trigonometry.)
Maybe he's right, after all... ;-)
At 05:42 AM 8/4/2012, Robert Baillie wrote:
Many of you might find this article interesting:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/03/1109331/-In-Laymen-s-Terms-a-segue-...
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