Well, it seems my computer will let me in again. I didn't expect it till Monday, what with the 4th and all. Anyway, up front I'm not real good at articulating my thoughts. The lack of high school, where such ideas are taught. I'm self educated. . .
I use a calculator or on the computer as much as by "hand". Have since HP came out with RPN devices in the '70s. I don't object to electronic devices as such. Nor do I use a look-up (trig) table much. What I object to is people punching keys without having any idea of the answer they're looking for. I have slide rules. . . but haven't used one for years. And guages, and protractors, and Autocad, and lots of other goodies. A good "machinist's" protractor that has a lens. With careful use, it will allow reading partial degrees.
Learning "solid" trig for navigation, plane trig is a piece of cake. And why learn navigation when I was an electrician? Because it interested me, not that I would ever need it. Although it came in handy when I took an interest in "Bucky balls".
The whole point to the original thought was to remind folks that the mindless punching of keys is the cause of society in general falling behind. Garbage in, garbage out. GIGO. . . Know the answer you're looking for, within a few degrees. It's human nature to make mistakes, the fellow who doesn't make mistakes isn't doing (making) anything. Let's keep the mistakes down to appearance rather than function.
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