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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!)

    A lot of terms lose their original meaning.  'Typewriter' was the name of the person who did the typing (on a typewriter!).  Secretary at that time was the person in charge of an organisation (still used today as in Secretary of State, or the General Secretary of a Club or Trade Union).  I suppose what we now know as a secretary was at that time called the 'secretary's assistant'.  No wonder we get confused!

    I was quite adept with a slide rule at one time, it would certainly be a candidate for the luxury on desert island discs as it is useful, does not need batteries and it would be fun learning how to use it all over again. 

    If anyone remembers when pocket electronic calculators came out in the 1970's, a lot of people had one and spent many a fascinating evening finding the square roots of numbers for nothing else but the fun of it.  Those were the days!

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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!)

    A lot of terms lose their original meaning.  'Typewriter' was the name of the person who did the typing (on a typewriter!).  Secretary at that time was the person in charge of an organisation (still used today as in Secretary of State, or the General Secretary of a Club or Trade Union).  I suppose what we now know as a secretary was at that time called the 'secretary's assistant'.  No wonder we get confused!

    I was quite adept with a slide rule at one time, it would certainly be a candidate for the luxury on desert island discs as it is useful, does not need batteries and it would be fun learning how to use it all over again. 

    If anyone remembers when pocket electronic calculators came out in the 1970's, a lot of people had one and spent many a fascinating evening finding the square roots of numbers for nothing else but the fun of it.  Those were the days!

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