[ale] [OT] Strange Request: Demonstrate a Calculator is Working Correctly

[Jim Kinney]

Good question!

I don't have a specific test sequence to offer. I do recall that division
is the divergent operation based on binary math, endianess and integer
size. I think a search for "errors in decimal division converted to binary"
may help find numerical tests.

That said, the more modern calculators may have error correction for those
corner cases now.

All of my calculator failures have been display death or battery leaks.
On Sep 20, 2015 9:39 AM, "Tom Freeman" <tfreeman at intel.digichem.net> wrote:

>
> I ran into a problem a while back, and I'm wondering if anybody has a
> decent answer.
>
> Working at the board, I raced the students to get a calculation performed.
> I shouldn't have bothered. Our respective results diverged about the fourth
> place, with my little TI-30XA being a minority of one. (Sadly, I didn't
> think to write the problem down for further investigation.) I switched to a
> backup graphing calculator, and things went smoothly.
>
> Question that some googleing hasn't properly answered: How do you test a
> simple hand calculator to demonstrate proper operation?
>
> Obviously, the simple response is to dump the suspect calculator. Trash it
> with extreme predjudice as it were.
>
> However, since there are individuals on this list who need extended
> precision in their work, I wonder if they know how to test a hand
> calculator for correctness.
>
> Come to think of it - having a faulty calculator or three and a testing
> procedure might be a good instructional process for students. We do need to
> trust our equipment, and we need to continuously check it for error.
>
> In any event, my thanks to the list for the use of their bandwidth.
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20150920/3c62dad0/attachment.html>