[GreenKeys] slide rule???

[Roy Morgan]

At 06:28 PM 7/24/2006, Craig Sawyers wrote:
...I think there is a lost skill in that statement of frustration - making an
>order of magnitude estimate.  Roughly how big is the answer?

Craig and others,

A story from the daughter of the head of the physics department at MIT:

Time was, when all undergraduates at MIT had to learn surveying. It was 
taught at a summer camp on the coast of Maine, and the rocky cliffs and 
nearby islands offered challenging terrain and good sighting lines.  The 
instructors had the angles and distances memorized, of course.

When one student was asked the distance to the marker point on an island, 
he proudly replied "One hundred fifty two point six seven feet."

The instructor scowled and handed the young man a modest sized rock.
"Young man, how far can you throw this rock?"
"Oh, maybe two hundred feet."
"Go ahead, then. Throw it."
(Splash)
Long pause.

"Uh oh, I think I got the decimal point in the wrong place."


Lesson well learned.

Roy


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