When I was in elementary school, the teachers would always tell us the same thing when we would complain about doing our math problems. They would always say that when we were older, we wouldn’t be carrying a calculator with us everywhere and that we needed to know how to do this equation or problem. Little did they know, that is exactly the case now. Nowadays, almost every person you see walking down the street has the ability to do mathematical equations on their phone, with minimal thinking involved. I think that since it is so convenient to use your smartphone to do almost all your mathematical operations that you need to do in your everyday life, we have become less dependent on our minds for to solve them. I think that this is the root of our lack of mathematical savvy. Our minds aren’t being as engaged as much as they used to before everyone had a calculator in their pocket.
Another interesting tool I have found that I believe contributes to this is a site called Wolfram Alpha. Their site describes their goal as to “make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone.” Basically this site does problems for you. You heard that right. And its free. Its incredible the kind of knowledge that we have literally at our fingertips 24/7.
Seth
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