21 days ago
- The history of computers is often overly broad, including unrelated items like mechanical clocks and weaving looms, which dilutes the true narrative.
- The calculator's development deserves its own story, distinct from computers, beginning with ancient tools like notched sticks and the abacus for addition and subtraction.
- Multiplication tables date back thousands of years, with early examples from Babylon and China, and were used alongside devices like a mechanical monkey linkage for multiplication.
- The slide rule, invented in the 1620s, used logarithmic scales to multiply by adding distances, becoming essential for engineers until the 1970s.