Quote:
Originally Posted by mr fantastic  I doubt the OP would be posting this question if all it required was punching some buttons on a calculator. I think you'll find that an exact value obtained without using technology is required. |
I knew that. I was trying to point out-in a very uneffictive way upon retrospect-that there was no hint toward a mode of approaceh to this problem.
Anywho, now that we've got this posted here we might as well discuss it. Plato ("The Apology" is my favorite) has taken the stance that solving this problem analytically is entirely a waste of time. I can't say that I disagree. I will say, however, that if we are to stop focusing on learning how to solve what has already been solved and allow technology to play larger and larger roles in pedagogy, this decision to do so must be made with the idea in mind of acheiving some higher goal. A pragmatic route to further enlightenment, if you will. An argument can indeed be presented-as Plato has already stated-that some things are just a waste of time. It's all about utiliy and time management. How can we rear the most useful and produtive society in the fastest possible way? Most certainly it is a matter of priorities. Allow the child to use the calcutator here, so that he will have more time to theorize there.
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"Then thou carriedst thine ashes into the mountains:
wilt thou now carry thy fire into the valleys?"
Thus Spake Zarathustra
Friedrich Nietzsche
If you would like to know how the quadratic formula was derived, visit my post entitled:
Deriving the Quadratic Formula.