Posted by Sherman in Idaho [76.121.57.131] on Tuesday, May 27, 2014 at 01:55:35 :
In Reply to: Re: My understanding posted by derek [68.122.13.111] on Monday, May 26, 2014 at 13:06:57 :
I got the "difference engine" and the "analytical engine" muddled up. I certainly remember having to use trig tables and log tables to do basic calculations. Slide rules are just a short-cut approximation of using log tables. It sounds like the point of the "difference engine" was to create such tables automatically.
If nothing else, thinking about this sort of thing gives an idea of what we'd have to go through to re-create modern civilization from scratch if we lost what we have today.