Re: What is Estimation a Usefull tool for?

Dear Sonia:

Your inquiry to Mad Science Network about what the importance is 
of “estimation” is an interesting one.

In every-day life, one needs to estimate things, such as how much time a 
journey might take (which indicates how early you should start the trip), 
how much money you have on your person (so you will know whether or not 
you can buy stuff), how much time it will take for a thunderstorm to reach 
your location (so you can make plans to get out of the way), how much salt 
or other spices you might add to food (so it tastes good), and the like.

It is also helpful to be able to estimate (a.k.a. “approximate”) the 
result of a set of calculations for, say, solving problems in science.  
This technique is addressed in any number of introductory physics 
textbooks.  If a problem asks, for example, what  the volume is of a 
certain region of space, giving length, width, and height data each to 
several digits, you can estimate the answer by rounding off the data to 
one significant digit (i.e.,  to whole numbers), and almost do the 
problem “in your head” (by multiplying, dividing, adding, subtracting the 
whole numbers).  Even if you use a calculator to “punch in” the original 
data, you might press the wrong button or sequence of buttons, resulting 
in a wrong answer whose incorrectness you can easily detect by comparing 
the calculator display with your approximate answer.

I hope this answers your question.

PMF