Napier's bones calculating device.
Previously:
Pascal's calculator - photos
1950s Soviet mechanical calculator - GIF
Cigarette pack calculator - photo
Friden EC-130 electronic calculator - photo
Vintage mechanical calculator - photo
Napier's bones calculating device.
Previously:
Pascal's calculator - photos
1950s Soviet mechanical calculator - GIF
Cigarette pack calculator - photo
Friden EC-130 electronic calculator - photo
Vintage mechanical calculator - photo
New plans added on 11/04: Click here for 2,561 plans for homemade tools.
Home-PC (Jul 13, 2022), JoeVanGeaux (Jul 17, 2022), mwmkravchenko (Jul 17, 2022), Rangi (Jul 29, 2022), Tonyg (Jul 17, 2022)
In the seventeenth century the ability to multiply was probably rare so the bones may have helped to reduce errors although, IMO, the procedure is complex enough to be easily confused.
Napier's invention of logarithms was far more useful. We can thank him for the decimal point as well.
This reminds me of an old mathematician's joke...
Noah has finally beached the ark and the animals are being released to repopulate the world. The mating is going well but Noah's son reports that the adders are not getting it on. "Not a problem" says Noah and throws them on the dining table made of oak logs, whereupon they begin making baby adders.
Noah's son is astounded and asks his dad why that worked.
Noah responds, "Don't you know, even adders can multiply on a log table?"
I'll get my hat now.
---
Regards, Marv
Experience is always far worse than pessimism
baja (Jul 17, 2022), Home-PC (Jul 13, 2022), mwmkravchenko (Jul 17, 2022), Tonyg (Jul 17, 2022)
mwmkravchenko (Jul 17, 2022)
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