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A difference engine is an automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. It was designed in the 1820s, and was first created by Charles Babbage . The name difference engine is derived from the method of finite differences , a way to interpolate or tabulate functions by using a small set of polynomial co-efficients.
In mathematics, divided differences is an algorithm, historically used for computing tables of logarithms and trigonometric functions. [citation needed] Charles Babbage's difference engine, an early mechanical calculator, was designed to use this algorithm in its operation.
The advance ratio is critical for determining the efficiency of a propeller. At different advance ratios, the propeller may produce more or less thrust. Engineers use this ratio to optimize the design of the propeller and the engine, ensuring that the vehicle operates efficiently at its intended cruising speed, see propeller theory.
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In the 1920s, the novelist and engineer Nevil Shute Norway (he called his autobiography Slide Rule) was Chief Calculator on the design of the British R100 airship for Vickers Ltd. from 1924. The stress calculations for each transverse frame required computations by a pair of calculators (people) using Fuller's cylindrical slide rules for two or ...
Advances in Difference Equations is a peer-reviewed mathematics journal covering research on difference equations, published by Springer Open.. The journal was established in 2004 and publishes articles on theory, methodology, and application of difference and differential equations.
For arbitrary stencil points and any derivative of order < up to one less than the number of stencil points, the finite difference coefficients can be obtained by solving the linear equations [6] ( s 1 0 ⋯ s N 0 ⋮ ⋱ ⋮ s 1 N − 1 ⋯ s N N − 1 ) ( a 1 ⋮ a N ) = d !
In an analogous way, one can obtain finite difference approximations to higher order derivatives and differential operators. For example, by using the above central difference formula for f ′(x + h / 2 ) and f ′(x − h / 2 ) and applying a central difference formula for the derivative of f ′ at x, we obtain the central difference approximation of the second derivative of f: