I assumed calculators were already in 1970's
-
AFLW 2024 - Round 10 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
Computers & Internet Life before the internet
- Thread starter HappyChappy35
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Gough
Moderator
- Sep 29, 2006
- 74,278
- 138,743
- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
- Moderator
- #127
For the most part I think my schooling was mostly like my parents, we had calculators instead of slide rules, the set texts were a little more progressive and computers were just starting to enter the picture but the fundamentals were basically the same. I don't think if I had kid going through the education system now my experience would be that comparable to theirs.
Lol at the irony of this.
Dogs_R_Us
Space Traveller
Haha, colour TV, yes. Along with dishwashers and video recorders. Didn’t get a car with air con until the mid 80s. I was keen to learn about computers and took a basic word-processing course, around 1987. Helped me get a job where computers were used a lot, bluffed my way in and basically learned everything on the job. A few years later they were hooking up to the World Wide Web and the IT gurus were happy to teach us all about it. They also helped me set up my first home computer and I was introduced to the joys of dial-up.
Surely studying is easier now, or at least the Internet makes you able to learn more.
Imagine having to go to the library and check out a book that everyone else wants too. And to find it you have to use the shitty old catalogue at the library.
As a matter of fact, I went back to studying last year (did undergrad late nineties), and gotta say that whilst content is still hard, there's so many ways you can get help on the Internet. Get the right YouTube video and even the most abstract mathematics can start to make sense. Code not working? Copy paste your error message into Google and after 10 mins or so of reading you are sorted.
Imagine having to go to the library and check out a book that everyone else wants too. And to find it you have to use the shitty old catalogue at the library.
As a matter of fact, I went back to studying last year (did undergrad late nineties), and gotta say that whilst content is still hard, there's so many ways you can get help on the Internet. Get the right YouTube video and even the most abstract mathematics can start to make sense. Code not working? Copy paste your error message into Google and after 10 mins or so of reading you are sorted.
Engimal v3
Premium Gold
No one was truly living before the internet
Dogs_R_Us
Space Traveller
Learning via YouTube is great, no doubt. I’ve used it a lot myself. But I’m glad I went through the era of books and it’s sad that reading actual books (as opposed to e-books, which I also read
) is declining. As a kid I was given a set of these from a cousin who had outgrown them and I read every volume from cover to cover. So researching from books was never a chore for me.
The Children's Encyclopædia - Wikipedia
- Jul 8, 2017
- 24,376
- 71,205
- AFL Club
- Richmond
My dad's an engineer and I remember him buying a calculator in the early 70s. It was a basic calculator with square root probably the most complex function. It cost him about a week's wages back then.
Dogs_R_Us
Space Traveller
Now no one can do simple arithmetic in their head, or even with pen and paper as they don’t know the process. We learned the times table by rote, and it’s stuck with me for life.
79 times 112...within 30 seconds with no calculator or GTFO
I do this mentally as (100 x 112) - (10 x 112) - (10 x 112) - 112
I recall when graphics calculators came out in year 11 or so and I got one, geez they were good. Then we got to uni (engineering) and we weren’t allowed to use em basically. Even one subject they banned scientific calculators for the exam, any sums had to be done on paper.
- Jul 8, 2017
- 24,376
- 71,205
- AFL Club
- Richmond
Yeah I remember calculators being banned in high school. Had to use log books lol.
- Jul 13, 2015
- 38,554
- 43,669
- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
Michael Crichton talked about how we are stupider now because of the easy access to knowledge. We no longer have to go to a library and search through a number of books. We just type what we want in a browser and there is the info.
He also talked about how pretty much all great discoveries were by individuals or small groups, and now information is there for everyone.
I think he was on the right track.
And this isnt even touching on the state of education now.
- Jul 8, 2017
- 24,376
- 71,205
- AFL Club
- Richmond
Easy done with pen and paper, I doubt the young uns would be able to though.
Interesting. Mentally i do it differently.
For me the steps are 79 x100 first...then 79 x 10 and finally 79 x 2 and just add them together..
Should be able to do it in your head. To be honest, people that cannot, probably mentally lazy. Some people start with mental block they cannot do it, so never teach themselves they can
- Jul 8, 2017
- 24,376
- 71,205
- AFL Club
- Richmond
I would have been able to do it in my head years ago. Now I guess I'm used to calculators, it has made us lazy.
Dogs_R_Us
Space Traveller
8 x 112 is easy enough. Add a zero. Deduct 112.
- Sep 2, 2014
- 16,668
- 32,014
- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
- Other Teams
- Liverpool
There was a lot less bullies that's for sure. The amount of w***ers who go unchecked now because they're anonymous is insane, most people I knew growing up got chin'd if they started getting too cocky. Was a great life lesson for most.
That's the one Lily would have done
I still think you could do it. You probably just got in habit of using a calculator so much it gets in the way of even attempting it in your head.
I recall when I was a maths tutor and had an argument with a year 8 kid, he didn't see why he had to learn to add up on paper when he had a calculator.
So I wrote some sums on paper and said if he could add them up quicker than me I'd never make him use a calculator again.
Naturally I chose convenient numbers and added them as I was writing them out, so I won.
Similar threads
