As Feynman once observed, that's like calculating the distance from Los Angeles to New York to within a hairbreadth.
Conservatives still don't like calculating the deficit any way except literally.
Jill Constantine, who works for a public-policy research firm in Princeton, said that when the firm put its expense reporting online, it automated tasks like calculating mileage.
Others have found the same improvements when the items being mixed are specific kinds of problems, like calculating volumes, or exponents.
The site offers free help and advice in three categories of divorce problems: legal issues like custody, alimony and property division; financial issues like calculating child support or a pension's value; and lifestyle issues like stress and anger.
Others are more slippery, like calculating the potential human costs of a major release of radioactive materials from the plant, in Buchanan, about 35 miles north of Midtown Manhattan.
I make up stories in my head about them, wondering what they were like (or are like), calculating how old they'd be now and the chances that they're still alive.
Shortly before the conference, I.B.M. had asked a few of its customers to come up with real-world computing chores, like calculating airflows for the design of a jet wing.
Computers proved to be very good at tasks that humans find difficult, like calculating large sums quickly and beating grand masters at chess, but they were wretched at this, one of the simplest of human activities.
Dr. Ginsberg's real job is chief executive of On Time Systems, in Eugene, Ore., whose software, used by the United States Air Force, helps in tasks like calculating the most efficient flight paths for aircraft.
