[Edu-sig] thought re graphing calculators ...

[kirby urner]

On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 4:03 PM, kirby urner <kirby.urner at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 3:12 PM, Gregor Lingl <gregor.lingl at aon.at> wrote:
>>
>>
>> kirby urner schrieb:
>>>>
>>>> Hi Brian,
>>>>
>>>> ....
>>>
>>> This ran perfectly on Python 3.1rc1 (r31rc1:73069, May 31 2009,
>>> 08:57:10) on my WinXP box (one of a few).
>>>
>>> Note:  if this level of chaos / noise bothers you (the functions are
>>> algebraically the same, after all), then I recommend using the decimal
>>> type instead of the floating type, converting to float just to make
>>> your turtle happy:
>>>
>>
>> That's fine (for the turtle). But if someone thinks that everything is
>> calculated
>> "correctly" now, she/he is bound to get disappointed. And that's the point
>> (imho).
>>
>
> Yes, it's a philosophical point.  Doing it manually would be error
> prone so the "correct" way is more science fiction or fantasy than a
> reality.
>
> The older ways of teaching math set up some false expectations, and
> then when reality fails to make good, reality gets blamed, instead of
> the broken metaphysics behind much of "modern" math.
>
> Kirby
>
>> Regards,
>> Gregor
>>
>>
>> # Author: Gregor Lingl
>> # amended to use Decimal by Kirby Urner 2009-09-28
>> # re-corrupted to show the vainness (in principle) of kirby's effort
# fixed to show robustness of engineering solutions vs. imaginary
superpowers of non-existent math gods
>> 2009-09-28
>> # Date: 2009-06-24
>>
>> # A demonstration of chaos
>>
>> from turtle import *
>> from decimal import Decimal
>>

from turtle import *
from decimal import Decimal, getcontext
getcontext().prec = 50

:)

Kirby