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Log Tables

lostmyway

While I have a good idea how log tables work, I'm still in the dark as to how they are compiled.

I gather some bloke name 'Napier' originally invented them but what method did he use?

Any mathematicians' contributions would be appreciated. 

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  • NAS22687 said:

    Wasn't "computer" originally the term for one of the many people sitting in a big room manually working out tables with a pencil and paper?  Something like that anyway.  I could look it up but it's 6:30am, my brain isn't online yet and I'm not going to blunder around trying to find stuff until it is!

    I remember seeing my late father's slide-rule and never quite figuring out how it did whatever it was that it did.  He was a draughtsman and needed to calculate stuff, and electronic calculators weren't readily available at the time (and the electromechanical ones were big, expensive and not very portable!)

    That's correct, vometia. I saw a You Tube video the other day about it and yep, 'computer' was the name given to people who did the working out. Funny how times change.

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  • NAS22687 said:

    Wasn't "computer" originally the term for one of the many people sitting in a big room manually working out tables with a pencil and paper?  Something like that anyway.  I could look it up but it's 6:30am, my brain isn't online yet and I'm not going to blunder around trying to find stuff until it is!

    I remember seeing my late father's slide-rule and never quite figuring out how it did whatever it was that it did.  He was a draughtsman and needed to calculate stuff, and electronic calculators weren't readily available at the time (and the electromechanical ones were big, expensive and not very portable!)

    That's correct, vometia. I saw a You Tube video the other day about it and yep, 'computer' was the name given to people who did the working out. Funny how times change.

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