Originally Posted by
compressor stall
What some older posters may overlook is that with the proliferation of calculators on everything nowadays, mental maths in now young adults may not be as well developed as it was in the days of yore.
I subtly teach my kids tricks like this. In car trips, hiking etc. We're doing 100kmh, it's 60km to the next town, a lolly for the closest ETA in the next 5 seconds sort of thing- and they need to approximate.
Additionally it increases the chances of finding finger error when using the calculator on more complicated stuff, which might make the answer an order of magnitude out. If they are using the calculator for a homework task I ask them what should the answer be, roughly.
My experience teaching and instructing people of a younger demographic is exactly this. There is less ability to approximate and apply mental maths than was my experience at a similar age. This isn't really that demographics fault, everyone is a product of their environment. I've noticed the same trends regarding the use and reading of paper maps by someone who has clearly been raised on self-orientating digital maps.
I'm not in any way assigning blame, as I said people are a product of their environment. There is however a profound generational difference in the application of mental maths and approximation.