

John McCarthy on the importance of doing the math - sabalaba
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/arithmetic.html

======
RiderOfGiraffes
Why did you change the title? Look ...

\+ The URL ends in arithmetic

\+ The title of the article is

    
    
      > GETTING THE NUMBERS AND DOING THE ARITHMETIC
    

\+ The last paragraph says:

    
    
      > "Many questions can be settled by recourse to
      > available statistics and arithmetic - arithmetic
      > not higher mathematics ... "
    

Why did you claim it's about math? It's not, it's about arithmetic.

</rant>

~~~
hga
"Do the math" is a standard phrase for doing the sort of thing McCarthy
advocates.

He also has a great "test" of sorts that he uses on classes involving the
putative fate of a doctor who developed the ability to heal anyone by touching
them, it's in a delightful book that profiles him and two other smart people.

------
sabalaba
A few paragraphs on the importance of running the numbers in any discussion.
Part of his greater series on human sustainability and progress (<http://www-
formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/index.html>) [WARNING: epic material].

excerpt:

""" Many questions can be settled by recourse to available statistics and
arithmetic - arithmetic not higher mathematics, although higher mathematics is
also useful. The converse is that failing to look up statistics and do the
arithmetic is a recipe for ignorance. """

------
JoachimSchipper
[Not intending to start a flamewar...]

I was surprised to see that "acre-feet" were, apparently, not intended as a
parody of the Imperial system.

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
No, "acre-feet" is an actual measure of large volumes of water.

ADDED IN EDIT:

One acre-foot is 1233481.84 litres. That's 325851.429 US gallons, or 271327.96
imperial gallons.

~~~
jpr
For some values of "actual". I think these kinds of retarded units are one
reason for not doing the arithmetic.

~~~
hga
Errr, no, acre-feet is this domain the unit of measurement for water in the
US. At least west of the Mississippi (west of the first line of states it gets
quite dry and everything changes, including the system of law about water).

