Re: (ReacTor) Defining Our Terms: What Do We Mean by "Hard SF"?

On 9/7/24 1:41 PM, Michael F. Stemper wrote:

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.

Aye - back in the day, some calculus texts had sections called (something like) "Integration by Tables", and some courses had homework, quizzes, etc on such things.
Tony