November 05, 2016 Saturday
Bedtime Story
Differential Analyser
Differential Analyser
Differential equations is a fascinating topic though it involves
some interest in mathematics and love for equations.
Equations and symbols do tend to be scary for most.
Differential analyzer is an analog computer that are specifically
designed to solve differential equations by integration.
It was the great German mathematician Bernhard Riemann who gave a
rigorous and formal definition of integration using limits.
The limiting procedure initially summed up the area of a curvilinear
space by breaking or dividing it up into multiple tiny strips.
An analog computer works on moving parts which can be mechanical
such as a sliding scale, hydraulic or electrical.
Unlike digital ones, they do not use discrete values and hence
have low reliability.
Vannevar Bush of the MIT and one if its first pioneers called it a
“continuous integraph”.
It is interesting to know that this new technology like almost any
technology since the dawn of the civilization found its first use in the war.
Specifically to determine trajectories of missiles, detonations
and eventually to construct the atom and nuclear bombs.
Due to the lack of time I will keep my story short today.
Stay tuned to the voice of
an average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night and my fellow cousin ape.
Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic engineer and
a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, may I
suggest this large collection of Kids Songs:
This differential analyzer was built at the Manchester University in 1934 by mathematician and physicist Douglas Hartree and his PhD student Arthur Porter using inexpensive parts from a company called Meccano
No comments:
Post a Comment