MECHANICAL CALCULATORS (abacus-slide rule-Napier 's bone)

abacus-slide rule-Napier 's bone

MECHANICAL CALCULATORS 

ABACUS mechanical calculators, Abacus, slide rule, Napier's bone

What is Abacus?

The history of computers starts with Abacus. It was first used by the Chinese about 3000 years before. There were different types of abacuses used in different parts of the world. The standard abacus can be used to perform addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication. It can be used to find square roots and cube roots as well. Abacus consists of two sections or decks. The upper deck is known as the heaven and the lower deck is known as the earth. Each based in the upper deck has a value of 5 and the value for each bead in the lower deck is1. Usually, it is made up of a wooden frame.

NAPIER'S BONE

What is Napier's Bone? who invented it and when?

Napier's Bone is a mechanical calculating machine. It was developed by Scottish mathematician John Napier in 1617 AD. Several bones or rods with numbers in them are used for calculations. Ten bones are corresponding to the digits 0 through 9, and the eleventh bones as a multiplier. It is used for multiplication, division, finding roots, etc.

SLIDE RULE

 What is Slide Rule? when was it invented?

Slide Rule is another mechanical calculating device developed by an English Mathematician William Oughtred in 1620. In the slide rule, two rulers are used to slide one over another big ruler for the calculations. It was used for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

BABBAGE'S DIFFERENCE AND ANALYTICAL ENGINE (1792-1822)

What is an analytical engine?

Who is known as the father of computers?

what is the difference between Engines?

Charles Babbage was a British mathematician and inventor. He designed the first Difference Engine in 1822 AD and upgraded it into Analytical Engine in 1833 AD. It was the proposed first general-purpose mechanical computer.  This invention is considered a major contribution to the evolution of the computer, It was a kind of the general-purpose computer. It was using the concept of memory and punched card input/output for data and instructions. He had introduced all the essential ideas of modern computers. To  recognize his contributions, Charles Babbage is known as the "Father of the Modern Computer"

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