John McCarthy on the importance of doing the math
www-formal.stanford.edu
www-formal.stanford.edu
+ The URL ends in arithmetic
+ The title of the article is
> GETTING THE NUMBERS AND DOING THE ARITHMETIC
> "Many questions can be settled by recourse to
> available statistics and arithmetic - arithmetic
> not higher mathematics ... "
</rant>
He also has a great "test" of sorts that he uses on classes involving the putative fate of a doctor who developed the ability to heal anyone by touching them, it's in a delightful book that profiles him and two other smart people.
excerpt:
""" Many questions can be settled by recourse to available statistics and arithmetic - arithmetic not higher mathematics, although higher mathematics is also useful. The converse is that failing to look up statistics and do the arithmetic is a recipe for ignorance. """
I was surprised to see that "acre-feet" were, apparently, not intended as a parody of the Imperial system.
ADDED IN EDIT:
One acre-foot is 1233481.84 litres. That's 325851.429 US gallons, or 271327.96 imperial gallons.