ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Business Related Discussion Do you count seconds?

Sparky,
I was quite "lucky" in that I missed out on having a calculator at high school, because they were so darned expensive to own at the time.

Your calculator back then was a pad of blank paper that you did your equations on, with a pencil and an eraser as I recall, I used the eraser, a LOT!

That held me in good stead for when I sat my Registration Theory Exams, where if you didn't show all of your calculations and the method as to how you came up with your answer, you failed that particular question, which a lot of candidates did, having been taught to use a calculator.

Don't get me wrong, I am no mathmetician (sp?) by anyone's stretch of the imagination, I am however able to work out most stuff in my head or on a sheet of paper if need be, a lot of that comes down to experience with reactive components, power factor and the like.
I have met "qualified" electricians here that can't work out basic Ohms law calculations without reaching for their phones.