One reason why you shouldn't use a calculator on a mobile phone

[StephenG1CMZ]

(01-26-2017 12:04 PM)BruceH Wrote:  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/26/..._caffeine/

Researcher calculates on a mobile phone, misses out a decimal point and nearly kills two volunteers by giving them a dose of caffeine two orders of magnitude too large.

The problem is not as simple and that - and there are two important reasons to use mobile phones.
Using mobile phones rather than calculators allows the results to be checked at places where more specialised equipment is unavailable - and allows checking the dosages online against poisons databases, rather than simply by calculating.

Of course, mobile phones may not be as reliable as calculators - Use both, not one or the other.

From the brief details given, it appears that a calculation may have been done, rather than a program executed. Had an algorithm or procedure been followed, one might hope the algorithm would have been professionally written by a CEng so as never to deliver a beyond-lethal dose, and administered and reviewed by appropriately trained medical professionals.

I have worked as a CEng in safety-critical work (though subs are unaffordable).