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From: "Michael F. Stemper" <michael.stemper@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: (ReacTor) Defining Our Terms: What Do We Mean by "Hard SF"?
Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2024 12:41:50 -0500
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On 24/08/2024 10.30, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> Paul S Person  <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
>> On 22 Aug 2024 23:12:48 -0000, kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
>>>
>>> I think memorizing integral tables is kind of a standard thing for
>>> engineering calc classes.  The whole point of the class is to be able to
>>> solve hairy integrals as quickly as possible and there's no time to =
>> derive
>>> anything that you can memorize.  If you try to derive everything you'll
>>> never get through a fraction of the exams in time.
>>
>> Ah.
>>
>> Teaching to the test.
> 
> No, not at all.  The purpose of the class is to teach a specific set of
> skills, which is to say rapid integration and derivation, because those
> skills will later be required in engineering classes and then in the real
> world of engineering.
> 
> That is, it's skills training and not education.

Well, in the real world, even before Matlab and such, if an engineer was faced
with an ugly integral, he'd[1] pull the CRC book off the shelf, rather than
try to apply integration by parts or something.

And, I challenge anybody who hasn't taken a few semesters of calc to actually
apply the CRC information to a problem.

[1] Almost invariably back then.
-- 
Michael F. Stemper
Psalm 94:3-6