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The history of computing hardware spans the developments from early devices used for simple calculations to today's complex computers, encompassing advancements in both analog and digital technology. The first aids to computation were purely mechanical devices which required the operator to set up the initial values of an elementary arithmetic ...
Napier's bones is a manually operated calculating device created by John Napier of Merchiston, Scotland for the calculation of products and quotients of numbers. The method was based on lattice multiplication, and also called rabdology, a word invented by Napier.
Friden made a calculator that also provided square roots, basically by doing division, but with added mechanism that automatically incremented the number in the keyboard in a systematic fashion. The last of the mechanical calculators were likely to have short-cut multiplication, and some ten-key, serial-entry types had decimal-point keys.
Modern English translations of both Napier's books on logarithms and their description can be found on the web, as well as a discussion of Napier's bones and Promptuary (another early calculating device). [11] His invention of logarithms was quickly taken up at Gresham College, and prominent English mathematician Henry Briggs visited Napier in ...
In the early Ming dynasty, the abacus began to appear in a 1:5 ratio. The upper deck had one bead and the bottom had five beads. [29] In the late Ming dynasty, the abacus styles appeared in a 2:5 ratio. [29] The upper deck had two beads, and the bottom had five. Various calculation techniques were devised for Suanpan enabling efficient ...
Was the first scientific calculator to fly in space in 1973. [5] HP-35 calculators were carried on the Skylab 3 and Skylab 4 flights, between July 1973 and February 1974. [6] Is the first pocket calculator with a numeric range that covered 200 decades (more precise 199, ±10 ±99). [5]
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The Roman abacus was the first portable calculating device for engineers, merchants, and presumably tax collectors. It greatly reduced the time needed to perform the basic operations of arithmetic using Roman numerals. [citation needed] Karl Menninger said: