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Curta Calculator

Curta Calculator

Curta Calculator

(OP)
The January issue of Scientific American has an article on the Curta Calculator used by many until the battery powered portable devices came along.
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

RE: Curta Calculator

I posted this in the tread on old calculators.  This link has almost everything you would want to know about Curtas including a simulator.
http://www.vcalc.net/cu.htm

RE: Curta Calculator

(OP)
BJC,
After your post and looking at the link I went back and looked at the footnotes to the SA article. Sure enough they reference both the site and simulator.  I did get to use a Curta  for about a year until bigger and better things came along.  One of the people that I worked with got all the Curta calculators, probably 10-12 , the company got rid of when the square root extracting desktop Marchants/Friedens came along.  Still trying to get him to part with one.  
It is just like the slide rule nobody believes we actually worked with things that you have to crank or push and pull.
NO KEYBOARD!

Like I've mentioned before when you made a statement in a meeting and the slide rules came out you knew you were in trouble where as now you don't know what they are doing on the laptops or PDAs'.

RE: Curta Calculator

I remember sitting at a physics siminar and a guy had a PDA.  It had a little fold open keyboard and stand!  A real novelty item--I guess.  

The lap tops still haven't come along far enough where my "engineering" calculator can be pastured.  What we would all like to know IS WHO THE HEH STARTS DOING CALC'S WITH A PDA OR LAP TOP AT A MEETING.

Oh no, the stiffness matrix is not symmetric.  Oh no, it's only accurate to 3 sig figs.  Oh no, the plate elements are over stressed.

enjoy...        

RE: Curta Calculator

I sometimes will take out the PDA at a meeting, to write down "buy milk and lettuce", which I forgot to write while on the phone with my wife, before the meeting...

Another common use: Tetris for PALMPILOT...

But that's just me...

RE: Curta Calculator

(OP)
trainguy
Thanks for reinforcing my previous statement concerning the calculator vs the slide rule at a meeting

RE: Curta Calculator

Thanks for the chuckle train guy.
Eeeexceeelllleeeeent.......................

RE: Curta Calculator

I have a HP 48g and HP 49g for my Palm Zire 71 PDA (). It is not an emulator, it is the real ROM copied from the calculator, soh it has everything the HP has (even the looks) but works way mucha faster on a 144mhz ARM Texas Instruments processor. Its way better than carrying the monster HPs. But still, having a Curta is my dream...
You can take a look at the HPs for palm at http://power48.mobilevoodoo.com/
the best thing, its free.

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