Learning algebra in my 60s

Re:Learning algebra in my 60s by ravi-delia on Monday August 08, 2022 @01:37PM (#32388553)

Eh, the closer you can get to entering a formula without the mental effort of backtracking and lookahead the better. It's like fraction buttons; obviously you can just think ahead and use parenthesis with division, but a smart fraction button will save a lot of time

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Re:Learning algebra in my 60s by WalterBright on Monday August 08, 2022 @01:49PM (#32388705)

What's 20% of $59.22?

    .2 * 59.22

What price is $2.99 milk with 9.2% inflation?

    2.99 * 1.092

What did $5.00 gas cost last year?

    5.00 / 1.092

I'm not seeing backtracking and lookahead.

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Re:Learning algebra in my 60s by ravi-delia on Monday August 08, 2022 @04:21PM (#32390532)

You'll note that English is written left to right. In the string "20%" there is a "2", a "0", and a "%" arranged from left to right. To type that string into a calculator, one could press "2", "0", and "%" in that order, or "0", ".", "2", in that order. To know to lead with "0." rather than "20", you have to look ahead.

For the others you'd have to do the mental work to append a 1 regardless, might as well stick with decimals

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