A message for the non-geezers. If you want to get an idea of what is being talked about. Go to Blockbuster (or your local video rental store) and search through the classic films for a copy of the movie, The Apartment, which starred Jack Lemon. There is a rather amusing segment in that film where he watches and LISTENS to the sounds of a Friden calculator grinding out a calculation.
For the geezers who remember Friden calculators, I think a psychophysics measure that should have been researched was the number of milliseconds between a person hearing the calculator jamming and reaching over the top of the machine in order to disconnect the power card. But atleast we weren't using Comptometer machines, which were totally manual. Yes, that's right, no form of energy other than finger power. The Friden calculators I used in 1958 were not able to compute a square root directly. The method that was offered in the machine manual instructed you to repeatedly subtract consecutive odd numbers. The calculator kept track of the number of subtractions that were made. A simple example. 9 - 1 = 8, 8 - 3 = 5 and 5 - 5 = 0. Three odd numbers have been subtracted (the square root of 9). Obviously, we didn't use that method, we just looked up the square root in our CRC Table Book. That name was included on the old geezer test list. But that would have been too biased in favor of the techie slide rule crowd. How many geezers also memorized that the square root of 3 was 1.732 and the square root of 2 was 1.414? Oh, those trig classes. Well this old RETIRED geezer and TIPS lurker, who is now adjunct, still enjoys reading the TIPS information. OK guys back to lurking. Michael Bergmire Adjunct Jefferson College 1000 Viking Drive Hillsboro, MO 63050 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harry Avis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2001 5:08 PM Subject: Re: you're a geezer if you remember > They were Marchant, I wrote this note hastily before going to class with one > eye on the clock. I can't remember whether the Friden calculators were > completely electronic or operated like an electrified adding machine. Either > way my guess (counting the chunk-achunk-achunk) that seems indelibly wrote > in my auditory memory, each "chunka" was a half second, so the answer would > depend on the number of places needed. > > Harry Avis PhD > Sierra College > Rocklin, CA 95677 > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Life is opinion - Marcus Aurelius > There is nothing that is good or bad, but that thinking makes it so - > Shakespeare > > > > >From: Paul Brandon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Reply-To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences" > ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >CC: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Subject: Re: you're a geezer if you remember > >Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 15:38:12 -0600 > > > >At 12:53 PM -0800 11/26/01, Don Allen wrote: > > >Harry- > > > > > >I thought that they were Marchant claculators not Merchant. Does this > >mean > > >that I have dyslexia as well, or is this just another example of geezer > > >memory? > > > >For extra credit: > >How long did it take a Friden calculator to grind out a square root? > > > >* PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] * > >* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University, Mankato * > >* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 * > >* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html * > > > > > > > >--- > >You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
