3 ms·

Speaking of targeting computers, one of my favorite videos on YouTube is a training film describing the theory of operation behind a purely mechanical fire cont

• nsxwolf 11y ago
  Thank you for that. I just watched a few minutes, but already, watching a cam compute a reciprocal is by far the most interesting thing I've seen all week. Analog computers were basically voodoo to me before this. Looking forward to watching the rest!
• bcoates 11y ago
  I love that film, but it's kind of weird that it doesn't mention what's probably the most important invention that makes this type of computer possible: The torque amplifier. All the devices shown suffer power losses between input and output, some of them severe. A torque amplifier has two shafts that are 1:1 geared for speed but the output shaft has extra power taken from a third supply shaft, like the supply to a logic gate that lets it drive more output power than it draws from its inputs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque_amplifier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque_amplifier
• aswanson 11y ago
  Thanks...just goes to show how brilliant some of our pre-digital forbears were. I still give more props to old school television engineers to present day ones. The laws of physics are far more unforgiving than the laws of a compiler.