Is it ridiculous that you can't use a graphing calculator in a precalculus course?

It's the same issue at lower levels of math. My children were required to learn long division which I haven't used in decades. It's tedious, it's easy to make mistakes and you could accurately make thousands of the same calculations in Excel in a tenth of a second. They were also required to memorize state capitals even though a list can be acsessed online.

Your teacher was not very intelligent, or at least not very versed in technology, if he didn't know a calculator could solve something as simple as a limit.

For yourself, you could easily get an ip for dyslexia to use a calculator. As for the rest of your arguments though, the same could apply to a computer. Why shouldn't you be allowed to use an internet connected computer in a history exam, after all its just a tool.

The purpose of the examinations in mathematics courses are to determine whether one knows how to do the math. For a programmable calculator, someone who understands the math should be capable of demonstrating they can do what the calculator can, breaking it down into steps in an examination format. This is a test of mathematical skill. Anyone desiring to just know mathematics can watch entire courses online and use a calculator to assist them whenever they desire, even test themselves against a key if they wish, yet there is no proof of their mathematical understanding, save to oneself, in this format. A grade in a math course certifies a student is versed enough in that branch of mathematics to take a more advanced course for which the skills utilized in the earlier class are prerequisite to success in the later.

One university I took a couple summer classes at allowed students to use a calculator in class, however the professor reset the memory in all of them. I think this is a subpar medium, not as desireable as completing mathematics without a calculator at all (at least until the upper level university courses). If you can program a calculator on the spot to do the math for you, or understand it well enough, you can probably pass a higher level course. Yet mathematics isn't about showing you can get the answers to questions, but that you can apply concepts to solve problems. The calculator takes away the mathematical application part of the problem, instead making the application one of resource utilization and programming.

If you become a mathmetician, you'll use a calculator and software for the majority of your career, but you shouldn't have a calculator while in school much the same way as someone taking general chemistry shouldn't have a periodic table and someone taking an introductory history class shouldn't have an encyclopedia. I wouldn't allow an engineering student to show up to an exam with a wrench (it would be pretty useless but might create a distraction) or a mathematics student to show up to an exam with a calculator.

I got pretty close to perfect on in pre-calc 12 because we were allowed to use graphing calculators.

If you understand how to use a graphing calculator, every question can just put into the calculator and solved.

The only reason graphing calculators aren’t banned in most pre-calc classes is because the teachers (and most of the students) don’t know how to actually use the calculator. If the teachers knew what the calculator could do (as it seems like yours does), there is no way they would be allowed.

Ok this is a fair question and I'll try to give you some fair answers.

First, I actually don't totally understand your logic. You're saying that you should be allowed to use a computer because you actually do understand the math and you just need the computer to help you copy one line to the next. If your only problem is that you wish you had some software that would let you copy one line to the next without making stupid mistakes, then I totally agree and think that should be ubiquitous. I have similar issues all the time and I use a computer to do it for me most of the time nowadays. The problem with letting kids do this is that there isn't much software out there that will JUST let them copy one line to the next, most of it will also do the math for them, and that's the problem that I think teachers are trying to avoid. The learning process is obviously going to be hindered if the computer really does everything for you, so it's difficult to know where to draw the line on the issue when kids are learning something new.

For example, I was visiting a friend in DC, and I went to buy a croissant at a cafe. The croissant cost $2.07 or something. I handed the cashier a $5 bill and said, "Wait a sec," while rummaging through my wallet for change. The cashier immediately typed $5.00 into the cash register, which told her the change was $2.93. I then handed her $0.07, so that she could just give me $3 in change instead of $2.93. But the cashier didn't know how to do basic subtraction without a machine, so she just started yelling at me for handing her more change after she'd already typed in the number because now she had to type it in again, and she didn't realize I was trying to give her less work. I swear this story is true.

Second, a computer won't be able to help you with certain things when math becomes more advanced. I'm a statistical geneticist, so I try to come up with better statistical methods for genetics research and I use statistical methods to analyze genetic data myself. I often use python notebooks to do calculations and share results with people, but computers can't do all of my work for me.

-For most of my work, the first step involves creating a model, which means understanding the weaknesses of existing models, making improvements and approximations that seem reasonable under our experimental conditions, and trying to understand under what conditions those approximations hold. A calculator can't do those things.

-The second step is often to create some simulation that tests our model. The computer does the bulk of the work, but we still have to be able to figure out what sort of simulation to create and what sorts of parameters to use. The computer cannot do that for us, and it can't test all possibilities because it would take too long (like a million years on a thousand CPUs running in parallel or something like that).

-The third step is usually to figure out whether and how the simulation is broken. That means making more approximations, figuring out simple tests, and trying to understand how a weird result could come about.

-A separate but important issue is that a significant part of our work requires discussing our methods and results with each other and with other people. We have some fairly complicated models that we need to write out. I sketch diagrams and write out equations on white boards to discuss them with other people. A calculator can't really do that either. There are tools that you can download to a computer that can allow you to use it as a whiteboard, but then everyone needs to have access to those same tools and there are times when a whiteboard is simply more convenient (a computer screen the size of a wall would be expensive).

So basically, there are a few reasons that I've given why a computer can't/shouldn't always be relied upon:

1. Computers can be a crutch that prevent people from learning effectively

2. Computers might be a good solution for simple problems but a bad solution as the complexity grows

3. Computers don't lend themselves towards doing non-standard math

4. They can't really help if you're trying to make improvements to existing math

5. They sometimes take a lot of time

6. They sometimes aren't the best way to share and discuss things with other people

In conclusion, I don't think there's anything wrong with an adult using a calculator or computer whenever they can, but I think they often hinder the learning process and they can't solve all your problems, so you should at least be capable of knowing how the math works without relying on them.

Problem solved --- just go ahead and use your slide rule.

Albert Einstein wrote:

I just rolled over in my grave. I didn't even have to use a calculator for Quantum Mechanics.

Lol you don't need a calculator when you have Dirac notation.

I'd say that a good teacher would have a mix of homework and test questions that a calculator would not be of any help on, but also some that a calculator would be useful for. It would be useful to be able to do both.

Took Calculus for Engineers at a top level engineering school. Didn't get to use my calculator once. Get used to it lad.

Albert Einstein wrote:

I just rolled over in my grave. I didn't even have to use a calculator for Quantum Mechanics.

???

Interestingly, Einstein didn't believe much in quantum mechanics and called it "spooky action at a distance."

You do know American's sent man to the moon and back using pencils and slide ruler, right?

On a side note, how is it that Texas Instruments is still getting away with charging well over $100 for a graphing calculator that hasn't changed in decades? For that money you could buy a cheap Chinese smartphone and get a graphing app. (I get that you can't have a smartphone on the test or everyone would cheat.)

Even when I was in pre-calc 25 years ago I didn't really get the point of them. They're expensive, nobody uses them in the real world, and they can't do anything that you can't do better and with less of a learning curve on a computer. Your instructor is just doing everyone a favor, if they were allowed in class everyone would be obligated to buy one or be at a disadvantage on tests.

This is correct. Calculators do not belong in math education. As a friend of mine, a Rhodes Scholar in mathematical physics, said, you need to understand what you are doing and to practice the skills basic to math. It's astonishing how many problems students have at higher levels in middle school and high school depend on not having mastered the basics.

Took 4 semesters of calculus in uni and several linear/abstract algebra semesters, and never was allowed to use a calculator. Not sure why you’d need one either.

Did Big Al have much to do with QM? It's been a while, but I thought he was not a fan...