Modern Electronics (was Re: List charter mods & headcount... ;

From: Huw Davies <huw.davies_at_kerberos.davies.net.au>
Date: Tue Jun 22 03:13:39 2004

On 22 Jun 2004, at 08:53, Tony Duell wrote:
>
> There have been discussions over here about teaching maths in schools,
> in that with the common use of calculators it's not necessary for
> students to understand things like long multiplications (the fact
> that's
> _exactly_ how every calculator I've ever examined does multiplication
> is
> another matter, but anyway). To some extent that's true, but then you
> should teach the correct use of calculators. Why some statements that
> are
> mathemetically correct are not suitable for machine calculation. The
> problem with itterations that converge far too slowly, or are unstable.
> Things like that.

Well I can think of one programmable calculator that I used in the
early 1970s
that did multiplication/division etc using logarithms. This had the neat
side effect of giving 2x2=3.99999999 rather than the expected result
(unless
of course, you knew how it worked in which case the result was
expected).
ISTR that it used nixie tubes for output and that this thing cost heaps
of money (like $10K in the days when the Aussie dollar was worth more
than
the US one!).

Programming was achieved using a single punched card with pre-punched
chads
removed using some fancy tool (in my case a paper clip). The card was
read
by placing it in the card reader (duh!) which had lots of pins and
contacts, where
the holes were lead to completing a circuit so you basically had a card
programmed ROM.

I keep wanting to write that this calculator was a Wang, but I'm not
really
sure (it's been a while). I'm wondering whether the Physics Department
still
has it - I should ask.

> Problem is, that's _not_ what's taught. Actually, I am not convinced
> anything worthwhile is taught in schools any more :-(

I don't know enough to comment, only that the results are generally
disappointing.
Perhaps I was atypical for my generation, but I read heaps of things
when I was young
(apart from lots of fiction, there were useful things like "Look and
Learn")
as we didn't have much TV and no computers to waste time with. Of
course, I'm
redressing this in my later years :-)

Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies_at_kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne | "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia | air, the sky would be painted green"
Received on Tue Jun 22 2004 - 03:13:39 BST