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Computer Story 2

1. Many mechanical aids were developed starting in ancient times to help with astronomical and navigational calculations, including the planisphere, astrolabe, and later inventions like the slide rule and mechanical calculators. 2. The astrolabe was invented in either the 1st or 2nd century BC and combined features of the planisphere and dioptra to function as an analog computer. Later innovations incorporated gears, calendars, and other improvements. 3. Additional mechanical calculating devices developed over subsequent centuries included the sector, planimeter, slide rule, mechanical dolls that could be "programmed", tide-predicting machines, and differential analyzers - all demonstrating early attempts to perform automated calculations through analog computers before the

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24 views

Computer Story 2

1. Many mechanical aids were developed starting in ancient times to help with astronomical and navigational calculations, including the planisphere, astrolabe, and later inventions like the slide rule and mechanical calculators. 2. The astrolabe was invented in either the 1st or 2nd century BC and combined features of the planisphere and dioptra to function as an analog computer. Later innovations incorporated gears, calendars, and other improvements. 3. Additional mechanical calculating devices developed over subsequent centuries included the sector, planimeter, slide rule, mechanical dolls that could be "programmed", tide-predicting machines, and differential analyzers - all demonstrating early attempts to perform automated calculations through analog computers before the

Uploaded by

yshak_anugraha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Many mechanical aids to calculation and measurement were constructed for astronomical and

navigation use. The planisphere was a star chart invented by Ab Rayhn al-Brn in the early 11th
century.[7] The astrolabe was invented in the Hellenistic world in either the 1st or 2nd centuries BC
and is often attributed to Hipparchus. A combination of the planisphere and dioptra, the astrolabe
was effectively an analog computer capable of working out several different kinds of problems
in spherical astronomy. An astrolabe incorporating a mechanical calendar computer[8][9] and gearwheels was invented by Abi Bakr of Isfahan, Persia in 1235.[10] Ab Rayhn al-Brninvented the first
mechanical geared lunisolar calendar astrolabe,[11] an early fixed-wired knowledge
processing machine[12] with a gear train and gear-wheels,[13] circa 1000 AD.
The sector, a calculating instrument used for solving problems in proportion, trigonometry,
multiplication and division, and for various functions, such as squares and cube roots, was
developed in the late 16th century and found application in gunnery, surveying and navigation.
The planimeter was a manual instrument to calculate the area of a closed figure by tracing over it
with a mechanical linkage.

A slide rule

The slide rule was invented around 16201630, shortly after the publication of the concept of
the logarithm. It is a hand-operated analog computer for doing multiplication and division. As slide
rule development progressed, added scales provided reciprocals, squares and square roots, cubes
and cube roots, as well as transcendental functions such as logarithms and exponentials, circular
and hyperbolic trigonometry and other functions. Aviation is one of the few fields where slide rules
are still in widespread use, particularly for solving timedistance problems in light aircraft. To save
space and for ease of reading, these are typically circular devices rather than the classic linear slide
rule shape. A popular example is the E6B.
In the 1770s Pierre Jaquet-Droz, a Swiss watchmaker, built a mechanical doll (automata) that could
write holding a quill pen. By switching the number and order of its internal wheels different letters,
and hence different messages, could be produced. In effect, it could be mechanically "programmed"
to read instructions. Along with two other complex machines, the doll is at the Muse d'Art et
d'Histoire of Neuchtel, Switzerland, and still operates.[14]
The tide-predicting machine invented by Sir William Thomson in 1872 was of great utility to
navigation in shallow waters. It used a system of pulleys and wires to automatically calculate
predicted tide levels for a set period at a particular location.
The differential analyser, a mechanical analog computer designed to solve differential
equations by integration, used wheel-and-disc mechanisms to perform the integration. In 1876 Lord
Kelvin had already discussed the possible construction of such calculators, but he had been stymied

by the limited output torque of the ball-and-disk integrators.[15] In a differential analyzer, the output of
one integrator drove the input of the next integrator, or a graphing output. The torque amplifier was
the advance that allowed these machines to work. Starting in the 1920s, Vannevar Bush and others
developed mechanical differential analyzers.

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