Innumeracy at Work

I've been repeatedly stunned during the past few weeks at the limitations of many of my colleagues in the mathematical department:

• A comrade didn't know that the digits of π (3.1415926535...) never end or repeat.
• Another co-worker didn't understand exponential notation, e.g., how to write a million as 1e6 or convert 3.9e-2 to 0.039 by moving the decimal point appropriately.
• Nobody among a dozen technically-educated people knew how to multiply two numbers together using a slide rule.

But at least most of my colleagues can recognize a slide rule when they see it!

^z - 2010-10-09