So yah, it's true, this is an engineering class and you get to use your calculator to get the answer on the exam unless I the problem commands exact answer only.
But picture this: you're working in an engineering group meeting roughing out a device design and your boss throws out a rough model and you whip out your cell phone calculator and compute that the net voltage/force/pressure differential answer is 10^-15. Should you report this number to the group? Or should you report that the number is zero? Which answer would get you more respect from your cohort? Under what conditions? What if the true answer for the model is fairly obviously exactly zero, even though the model itself is an inexact approximation of the device?
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