3 ms·
How to Use a Differential Analyzer
- mywittyname 7y agoI didn't see this covered in this article and I don't remember. How were the coefficients for these differential equations calculated? Also, how useful were these? Today, I think most people use vector field plots because differential equations are so complicated. And I can't think of an easy way to get from the output of this machine to a vector field.
- tzs 7y agoThis could use a lot more visual aids. Here's a film that goes over a lot of the basics: "BASIC MECHANISMS IN FIRE CONTROL COMPUTERS" [1]. It's a 1953 US Navy instructional film explaining how mechanical fire control computers worked. These machines took inputs giving the speed and direction the ship was traveling, the speed and direction the target was moving, the distance and direction to the target, the wind speed and direction, and other factors, and computed how to aim the guns to shell the target. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwf5mAlI7Ug https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwf5mAlI7Ug
- anitil 7y agoThese old-school education videos are such a treat. One of my favorite is on differential gearing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4JhruinbWc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4JhruinbWc (apologies about the clickbait title)
- Arnavion 7y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYAw79386WI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYAw79386WI is the non-clickbait-title version, hosted by the channel with other popular recovered films in the same genre.
- peter_d_sherman 7y agoBasically, a differential equation is just a description of a rate of change in exact mathematical terms.
- peter_d_sherman 7y agoThe Antikythera mechanism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism) "variously dated to about 87 BC,[22] or between 150 and 100 BC,[13] or to 205 BC,[23][24]" -- may have been an early differential analyzer -- but that's a hypothetical conjecture...