Abilene Slim SASS 81783 Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 In the cartoon thread the gag was “what’s the square root of 5,248?” These days we just plug the number into the calculator and push the button. For the life of me, I can’t remember how we figured that out before we had calculators? I vaguely remember a laborious process of guesstimating. Any of you math wizards recall how? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 Dayumm, you shook the cobwebs. Give me a couple days, I’ll remember it, but I don’t think I’ll do the explanations. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpo Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 Guess. Divide by the Guess, add the guess, and divide by two. This gives you a new guess. Example 25. We will guess the square root is 4 25 / 4 = 6.25, plus four equals 10.25 / 2 = 5.125. 5.125 is the new guess 25 / 5.125 equals 4.87, plus 5.125 equals 10.003, divided by 2 equals 5.0015. New guess is five 25 / 5 = 5 + 5 = 10 / 2 = 5 Answer is five 1 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpo Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 (edited) I just experimented, and cube Roots works the same way. Just has one more step. 27. We will guess that the cube root of 27 is 2 27 / 2 / 2 =6.75 (because this is a cube root we have to do things three times, so we divide by the Guess twice, add the guess twice, and then divide by 3) 6.75 + 2 + 2 = 10.75, / 3 equals 3.5888 New guess 3.58 27 / 3.58 / 3.58 =2.106 plus 3.58 3.58 =9.266 divided by 3 equals 3.088 new guess 3.1 27 / 3.1 / 3.1 =2.809 + 3.1 + 3.1 =9.009 / 3 = 3.003 New guess is three 27 / 3 / 3 = 3 + 3 + 3 = 9 / 3 = 3 Cube root of 27 is 3 Edited March 18 by Alpo 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 Method four is it. https://www.cuemath.com/algebra/squares-and-square-roots/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abilene Slim SASS 81783 Posted March 18 Author Share Posted March 18 41 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said: Method four is it. https://www.cuemath.com/algebra/squares-and-square-roots/ That headache I got somewhere around 1965-1966 is coming back… 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kloehr Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 17 minutes ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said: That headache I got somewhere around 1965-1966 is coming back… Then stop reading this post right now. For square root of a number, take the log of the number, divide the log by 2, and take the antilog of the result. 2 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 42 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpo Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Is that anything like 420? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 (edited) 12 hours ago, John Kloehr said: Then stop reading this post right now. For square root of a number, take the log of the number, divide the log by 2, and take the antilog of the result. On your scientific calculator, Enter the number you want to find the square root of. Press the Log button Divide the answer by 2 Press the 10x button. On the calculator the x is to the top right of the number 10. Forum doesn't allow me to type superscripts. Square root of 5,248 log = 3.720 Divide by 2 = 1.86 10x = 72.444 Square root of 5248 = 72.444 72.444 X 72.444 = 5248.133 If you don't round any of the numbers the answer is 72.443081105099333012590465335873 Edited March 19 by Sedalia Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 34 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said: If you don't round any of the numbers the answer is 72.443081105099333012590465335873 Which is rounded…. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Ah, the joys of not having to do math on a daily basis. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 1 hour ago, Pat Riot said: Ah, the joys of not having to do math on a daily basis. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 19 hours ago, Pat Riot said: 42 ........ yep, ..... the answer to the ultimate question of Life, the Universe and Everything. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 6 hours ago, Pat Riot said: Ah, the joys of not having to do math on a daily basis. RIGHT. And even after writing a book, I've STILL never needed to diagram a sentence. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyesa Horg Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Or ever had to worry about a dangling participal. (sp) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shepherd Book Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 21 hours ago, Alpo said: Is that anything like 420? That's next month.... SB 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgavin Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kloehr Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 On 3/19/2024 at 3:58 PM, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said: RIGHT. And even after writing a book, I've STILL never needed to diagram a sentence. Having myself just put significant effort into putting this sentence together, I have no desire to take it apart. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watab kid Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 when i was i college we were forced to switch from the slide rule to calculators , i selected the HP35 others went with the texas instruments , both had their favorable recommendations as well as their drawbacks , , neither were perfect and both had different operating systems , but i could still use my slide rule just not as fast as those that perfected their calculators [i guess my first resistance to the progress] now-a-days all the calcs for trigonometry , geometry , algebra and integrals can be done on a computer as well as a lot more if your math extrends beyond what some of us were exposed to in college , i can still do long division - old school as well as most other things if given enough time ......on paper with the full written dribble we always had to do to prove our work , but i fear none of our kids are being taught those things anymore , my algebra teacher emphasized ballistic calculations back in high school - he thought , no he knew , we would need them in VN , but today im thinking no teacher of math even understand that , or why it might be needed , 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 (edited) 14 minutes ago, watab kid said: i fear none of our kids are being taught those things anymore , Why bother, they can just look it up on their phone. (Where is that sarcasm emoji?!?!) Edited March 21 by Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgavin Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 My wife was reading an 1890 census records in her genealogy application. She remarked how none of the kids today can read these... in script. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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