Why Few Use Graph Paper for Math & Science: Exploring the Reasons

[Beanyboy]

Can anyone explain the lack of widespread use of "graph-paper" notebooks/notepads" for Math and Science? (Incidentally, the French use them, for all subjects) As a Math/Science learner and teacher, I find the graph paper indispensable. So often you're trying to integrate the numeric and the graphic, so the graph paper is bloody handy. Cost might be a factor, but then, if everyone were using it, the price might come down.

For the life of me, I can't understand why schools don't insist on them from Elementary onwards.

 

[opus]

I guess it depends on preference. For me, I use blank sheets of paper with no lines. Lines distract me and I tend to focus more on putting everything on the proper line and spaced out rather than working the problem. But I do think that graphing paper is too expensive. I have a few engineering student friends and I'm told they are required to use it which looks painful because a sheet of about 100 is $15.

 

[Beanyboy]

Here is Louisiana, a spiral bound pad of 100 sheets of 4x4 quad ruled paper is less than $2. It's the "nothing fancy" basic stuff I'm referring to. If you're doing any work at all using the functions, graphs, it's really handy.

 

[Haborix]

I never really felt the need for graph paper after high school. If you need something beyond a sketch, then some sort of plotting software seems like a better choice than making an "accurate" hand drawing on graph paper. Graph paper seems particularly suited to the standard algebra and geometry classes in high school.

 

[Drakkith]

I rarely did enough graphing by hand to justify buying and carrying around 100+ sheets of graphing paper. And the graphing I did do almost never required anything better than a vague sketch of the graph, which I can do on regular notebook paper just fine.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

Can anyone explain the lack of widespread use of "graph-paper" notebooks/notepads" for Math and Science? (Incidentally, the French use them, for all subjects) As a Math/Science learner and teacher, I find the graph paper indispensable. So often you're trying to integrate the numeric and the graphic, so the graph paper is bloody handy. Cost might be a factor, but then, if everyone were using it, the price might come down.

For the life of me, I can't understand why schools don't insist on them from Elementary onwards.

Here in India, graph papers are extensively used upto the tenth standard in school. After that, the use reduces, because mostly graphs can be done by hand on notebooks. But in practical examinations, they are still used a lot.

In advanced science, graph papers are mostly not used. This is due to the technology available. Softwares like MATLAB will plot a graph for you, draw the best fit line, and do whatever you like. That reduces manual calculations to a great extent.

 

[berkeman]

Graph paper makes the writing harder to read, so it's not going to be used unless you need to make a graph.

"Engineering Paper" is specifically designed to let you have graph coordinate lines available if you need them for graphing, but because they are on the back side of the sheets, they don't interfere with reading text on the front side. Unfortunately pads of Engineering Paper are expensive, so they are typically only used by folks who do a lot of mixing of text and figures in their work or schoolwork... https://www.walmart.com/ip/TOPS-Eng...93696&wl11=online&wl12=21452190&wl13=&veh=sem

 

[Demystifier]

I guess it depends on preference. For me, I use blank sheets of paper with no lines. Lines distract me and I tend to focus more on putting everything on the proper line and spaced out rather than working the problem.

Same with me.