John Joyce
10/4/2007 5:09:00 AM
On Oct 3, 2007, at 11:37 PM, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
> John Joyce wrote:
>> On Oct 3, 2007, at 10:08 AM, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
>>> Michael Glaesemann wrote:
>>>> On Oct 3, 2007, at 7:53 , Michael T. Richter wrote:
>>>>> (I have similar questions about people acting as if functional
>>>>> programming -- '50s -- were the New Deal.)
>>>> Huh. I haven't seen many people claiming Roosevelt had much
>>>> influence on computer science.
>>>> Michael Glaesemann
>>>> grzm seespotcode net
>>>
>>> Well ... he did fund the Manhattan Project, after all. Most of
>>> the calculations for that, however, were done by rooms full of
>>> men and women operating mechanical desk calculators, under the
>>> direction of John Von Neumann and others. These men and women
>>> were known as "computers", and in many cases had college degrees
>>> in mathematics.
>>>
>>> The genius of Von Neumann was that he saw that such calculations
>>> could be done faster, more accurately and with lower cost
>>> electronically. But it didn't happen until *after* the Manhattan
>>> Project was over and FDR was in his grave.
>>>
>> Slide Rule
> Uh ... try integrating PDEs with a room full of people running
> slide rules some time. :)
>
> The electronic equivalent of the slide rule, the analog computer,
> was limited to a precision of at best five decimal digits, and
> could integrate *ordinary* differential equations easily. But
> partial differential equations are a whole 'nutha ball game. :)
>
Put a lot of stuff in space though!
And pioneered through the RF and amplifier circuits. (think vacuum
tubes/ valves, now that's some hardcore engineering!)