Quote:
Originally Posted by WarChild
It's obvious that you're an intelligent guy and have been very successful. I've personally paid a lot of attention to many of your posts over the years. That being said, I think you're simply mistaken in this case, most probably a slip of the memory due to the time involved.
The order of operations were the same 25 years ago as they are today. They applied when I learned them in grade school 25 years ago, and when I studied Computer Sciences in college 15 years ago. It's a fundamental principle essential to keep Mathematical equations from being ambiguous.  |
I'm not suggesting that the order of operations didn't exist 30 years ago. As new engineers we were all made aware of it. What I am saying is that it wasn't accepted in engineering school. Many trigonometric solutions were pages of calculations. We were required to do these without computers, which weren't available or hand held calculators. The precise nature of the work I chose doesn't allow for potentials. Only absolutes.
The fact that the basic laws of mathematics exist doesn't mean they are relevant today. I would wager,that of everyone that posted in this thread there might be one or two who even know what the sine of an angle is. Calculating seconds of a degree was a process that would take time. Today,with 3 mouse clicks we can measure angles.