Something like that would have come in handy for me a few minutes ago: I was calculating sqrt(2) to 10 places and sort(3) to 15 places, by hand on pencil and paper, and some of that got a little tedious.
I was doing this because I am relearning all the math I once knew but forgot. I'm currently finishing up relearning single-variable calculus, and I'm using Apostol's "Calculus" and doing all the exercises. One of the exercises at the end of the chapter on sequences and series of functions asks the student to derive an error estimate for the binomial series expansion of (1-x)^(-1/2), and then asks for the computation of sqrt(2) (using sqrt(2) = 7/5 (1-1/50)^(-1/2)) and sqrt(3) (using sqrt(3) = 1732/1000 (1-176/3000000)^(-1/2)) to 10 and 15 places, respectively.
Since pocket calculators would not have been available to the typical student in 1967, I decided it would be cheating to use a modern calculator or computer. I wanted to only use technology I might reasonable have had if I were a freshman in 1967. (Too bad it couldn't have been 1977, when I actually WAS a freshman taking calculus using that book...I had a nice calculator then).
> Since pocket calculators would not have been available to the typical student in 1967
Is a slide rule allowed?
One of my eternal regrets is throwing out my set of slide rules in the 80s when I decided calculators were here to stay (mainly because I got to play with an HP-41C, which introduced me to programming and, well, here I am).
(Way off topic, but at least in the Netherlands, you can pick up really nice slides rules for cheap on the local Ebay equivalent. You may want to try that.)
I was doing this because I am relearning all the math I once knew but forgot. I'm currently finishing up relearning single-variable calculus, and I'm using Apostol's "Calculus" and doing all the exercises. One of the exercises at the end of the chapter on sequences and series of functions asks the student to derive an error estimate for the binomial series expansion of (1-x)^(-1/2), and then asks for the computation of sqrt(2) (using sqrt(2) = 7/5 (1-1/50)^(-1/2)) and sqrt(3) (using sqrt(3) = 1732/1000 (1-176/3000000)^(-1/2)) to 10 and 15 places, respectively.
Since pocket calculators would not have been available to the typical student in 1967, I decided it would be cheating to use a modern calculator or computer. I wanted to only use technology I might reasonable have had if I were a freshman in 1967. (Too bad it couldn't have been 1977, when I actually WAS a freshman taking calculus using that book...I had a nice calculator then).