The Abacus and the Slipstick

Philip J. Davis and William G. Chinn

Chapter 21 in 3.1416 And All That, 1985, pp 152-158 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS, I have seen a standard-size abacus (see Figure 1) mounted in a glass atop a $300,000 computer “for use in case of emergency.” Now this optional equipment might have been installed as a joke, but it is just as appropriate as grandfather’s portrait over the mantel. Although it strictly serves more as a good recorder of calculations than it serves as a true calculator, the abacus (or counting board) is one of the forefathers of the computers in that it signifies an attempt at making computations easier.

Keywords: Function Concept; Simple Function; Diophantine Equation; Good Recorder; Common Logarithm (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1985
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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4615-8519-0_21

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