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The log tables let you work without slide rules, which were themselves horribly expensive not too terribly long ago in the grand scheme of things. But yes, this
by stan_rogers 6y ago
The log tables let you work without slide rules, which were themselves horribly expensive not too terribly long ago in the grand scheme of things. But yes, this was all about practical calculation, not mathematics for its own sake, that needed to be carried out quickly by people who wouldn't have handy access to machines that keep the dirty arithmetic details (and potential for error) hidden from the operator, whether that's your ship's navigator or the machinist with nothing but a sine bar and gauge blocks setting up a precision operation, and if you needed precision using a four-figure table book, the only way you were going to get it was if the derived operations were in the tables.
- bregma 6y agoThe converse is true: slide rules let you do calculations quickly and easily (since they hang in the leather holster on your belt) without having to carry an expensive and heavy copy of the rubber bible or similar work and stop and look up numbers then scratch the values down on paper and work the problem.
- stan_rogers 6y agoAgain, you're thinking of an era where slide rules were relatively affordable. That's mid-twentieth century stuff (although the key word is relatively; my first good slide rule cost more than a month's rent at the time).