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To me, the greatest appeal of analog computing is in representing equations in mechanical, visual, directly modifiable, 'hands on' forms. Having different concr
by amatic 5y ago
To me, the greatest appeal of analog computing is in representing equations in mechanical, visual, directly modifiable, 'hands on' forms. Having different concrete representations or implementations of abstract concepts makes them so much easier to understand. I've read somewhere that the technicians working at MIT with Vannevar Bush's mechanical differential analyzer quickly learned advanced calculus and "debugged" the math of university professors that would use the machines for various computations.
It is not the continuous nature of the variables that is so interesting, it is the concept of computing by analogy and the benefits to understanding that come with that.
- dredmorbius 5y agoSeeing the individual sine-wave functions comprising a tide table was an eye-opener for me. I've seen and used tide tables. I'd never even stopped to think that these were probably a Fourier function based on a set of waves, though that's blindingly obvious the second it's mentioned.
- amatic 5y agoThere is a series of four fantastic videos about a successor to Thompson's tidal analyzer - the Michaelson's Harmonic Analyzer; here is the first video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAsM30MAHLg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAsM30MAHLg
- dredmorbius 5y agoThanks!
- pjmorris 5y agoI don't know if I was the last kid in the US to buy a slide rule, but playing with it is how I came by my first understanding of exponents and logarithms in 8th grade.