most common question asked in a maths classroom: "why do we have to do this why can't we just use a calculator"
blatant lie told to every pupil since like 1980: "you won't always have a calculator available"
actual truth: "calculators are devil objects, none of them work the same, you'll only really be acquainted with how exactly one of them works across your lifetime and when it comes time to use it again you'll have forgotten how it works anyway"
@MililaniVF (2/3) However, I had learned how to approximate square roots, and the upper bound on the approximation error, using calculus. I had paper and pencil, so I calculated our diagonals to the precision I felt we could measure. I wonder if my mother made me calculate the diagonals (instead of doing it herself) to make her point that I should remember it too. I suspect that my solving it (thereby ruining her lesson) with calculus (the only math she dreaded) probably pissed her off royally.
