>>11803970Because most math questions are answered numerically. In the real world, people usually want numbers for answers. In the math world, most symbolic answers are actually just sequences that converge to the "answer" at some rate. As a mathematician, if you ask me for sin(1degrees), I could, if I really wanted, give you an equivalent expression in terms of rationals, the imaginary constant i, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square roots, and cube roots, and then hope that this expression simplifies in some way with another monstrous expression you have for a symbolic evaluation. Or, knowing what methods my calculator uses to calculate the sin function, what requirements I need for my answer, and my time and space available to me, I could just press 3 buttons and save myself an hour's work.
