John Matthews wrote: > --- In [email protected], "David Hamill" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Before the Spectrum existed, I played around with an early >> Sinclair scientific calculator. Mathematically, >> >> sin(x)/x --> 1 as x --> 0 >> >> but on this calculator sin(x)/x blew up for small values of >> x! > > Probably over 30 years ago my dad brought home a couple of pre-digital > calculators from the school where he taught. From what I remember they > looked a bit like typewriters, with a row of wheels with numbers on > them to show the current value. > > One of the machines was manual, so you 'entered' the numbers you > wanted to multiple/divide, then turned the handle. > > But the other was electric - it turned the handle itself. And if you > entered 1 divided by 0, it just sat there spinning its handle until > you pulled the plug out...
I remember those. The first type you describe. Never got to see the second type. Or maybe I did but don't remember it as clearly... -- Thomas Hruska CubicleSoft President Ph: 517-803-4197 *NEW* MyTaskFocus 1.1 Get on task. Stay on task. http://www.CubicleSoft.com/MyTaskFocus/
