On 6/13/07, wouter van ooijen wrote: > > According to my fellow teachers these boys are not bad, they are > typical. I hope for the safety of my country that serious engineering > work is very quickly outsourced to countries where 18y boys still have > at least some feeling for numbers and values... > I think your students are not too bad. After all they are first year students. I saw quite some 4th year Electrical Engineering students who do not have some feeling of numbers and values. And they are some bright students who does have good feeling of numbers but no sense of units. One of the Italian born adjunct professor gave a rather bright student a "C" for failing to use the correct units. I thought he was too harsh but maybe I was wrong. In my last job I often beat my manager and other fellow engineers when calculating simple math and units conversion. I just calculated by heart and my manager (who is a German) was using a HP48. Some simples ones -- please try to calculate wihout using paper/pen or a calculator. 12x12= ? 25x25= ? 24x25= ? 780+225= 111x111= 12mA x 5k Ohm = ? 0.12V x 8mA = ? Xiaofan -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist