4 ms·

Instrumental Tricks

25 points by _delirium 3y ago

chrisweekly 3y ago
Interesting history of the abacus, slide rule, and calculator.
n4r9 3y ago
> In an epilogue, Houston compares the fate of the calculator to that of an alien species in the science fiction of Iain M. Banks, which becomes so advanced that it ‘sublimes’ from the physical universe altogether to settle in higher dimensions. Really nice comparison.
roldie 3y ago
Off topic, but I'm curious about the lack of capitalization for "Nasa" (sic). Is this an oversight by the editor or a style guide choice? "BBC" is capitalized in another article, so presumably it's just a typo?
- stronglikedan 3y ago
  I've read that it's very British to not all-caps acronyms that are pronounced phonetically. Only those pronounced by the letters, such as BBC.
  - teachrdan 3y ago
    Indeed, an acronym that can't be pronounced like a word is technically an "initialism," not an acronym. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/initialism https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/initialism
- vehemenz 3y ago
  My guess is that it's a deliberate choice by the style guide. It's a frequent enough word to warrant its own acronym, but it's technically not a common noun, like "scuba." Hence the capitalization. Another example that springs to mind is "Covid" instead of "COVID-19."
  - olddustytrail 3y ago
    Well that should really be CoViD-19, but only a Perl programmer would bother with that!
smitty1e 3y ago
> By the mid-1960s, more than a million slide rules were sold in the US each year. The device became for the mathematically minded what the stethoscope was for the physician: a badge of professionalism as well as a practical tool. My understanding is that the act of internalizing the meaning of the exponents is a tremendous enabler of understanding; engineers of old achieved a better feel for the task than us moderns with all of the fancy software. Restated: there may be some good pedagogy in having the initial course or two do things in a classical way ahead of moving on to all of the new methods.
nayuki 3y ago
I kind of contributed: https://www.nayuki.io/page/casio-fx-991ms-tips-and-tricks https://www.nayuki.io/page/casio-fx-991ms-tips-and-tricks

25 points by _delirium 3y ago

Interesting history of the abacus, slide rule, and calculator.

n4r9 3y ago

> In an epilogue, Houston compares the fate of the calculator to that of an alien species in the science fiction of Iain M. Banks, which becomes so advanced that it ‘sublimes’ from the physical universe altogether to settle in higher dimensions. Really nice comparison.

roldie 3y ago

Off topic, but I'm curious about the lack of capitalization for "Nasa" (sic). Is this an oversight by the editor or a style guide choice? "BBC" is capitalized in another article, so presumably it's just a typo?

stronglikedan 3y ago
I've read that it's very British to not all-caps acronyms that are pronounced phonetically. Only those pronounced by the letters, such as BBC.
- teachrdan 3y ago
  Indeed, an acronym that can't be pronounced like a word is technically an "initialism," not an acronym. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/initialism https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/initialism
vehemenz 3y ago
My guess is that it's a deliberate choice by the style guide. It's a frequent enough word to warrant its own acronym, but it's technically not a common noun, like "scuba." Hence the capitalization. Another example that springs to mind is "Covid" instead of "COVID-19."
- olddustytrail 3y ago
  Well that should really be CoViD-19, but only a Perl programmer would bother with that!

smitty1e 3y ago

> By the mid-1960s, more than a million slide rules were sold in the US each year. The device became for the mathematically minded what the stethoscope was for the physician: a badge of professionalism as well as a practical tool. My understanding is that the act of internalizing the meaning of the exponents is a tremendous enabler of understanding; engineers of old achieved a better feel for the task than us moderns with all of the fancy software. Restated: there may be some good pedagogy in having the initial course or two do things in a classical way ahead of moving on to all of the new methods.

nayuki 3y ago

I kind of contributed: https://www.nayuki.io/page/casio-fx-991ms-tips-and-tricks https://www.nayuki.io/page/casio-fx-991ms-tips-and-tricks