Probably a table-lookup on a hand-held. Interest tables are some of the oldest known artefacts. I don't know offhand how old, though. Some businessmen would claim that the invention of interest ranks right behind the invention of money in the promulgation of commerce. I'd be interested in knowing approx when interest was invented. At 12:43 PM 12/13/2004, Richard Guy wrote:
In such matters, context is everything.
I've been intrigued for many moons by the fact that each morning I hear the market analyst reel off the changes in bond rates in 32nds and then give the resulting rates in % to two dec places. Does his machine quote these things thus?
R.
On Mon, 13 Dec 2004, Henry Baker wrote:
John:
I'm not so worried about his inability to do 3/8 + 3/8 -- after all, most of us can't do present value analysis in our heads, either.
What would bother me would be if he couldn't get his calculator and/or spreadsheet to do these calculations.
Henry ----- At 11:39 AM 12/13/2004, you wrote:
I was recently asked by a senior manager of purchasing for a large school district - What is 3/8 + 3/8 ?
I expect this manager deals in many millions of dollars annually.
It makes me wonder how important math is for the non- mathematician.
John McKay