Although totally supplanted by the hand-held calculator, the slide rule was an important device that, it may be fairly asserted, helped take man to the Moon. Since the seventeenth century, relied on the slide rule (the modern version dating back to French military officer Amedee Mannheim's 1850 design based on the operation of logarithms) to make multiplication, division, extraction of roots, and raising to powers easier to perform. Prior to the introduction of the electronic pocket calculator, scientists and engineers had, The success or failure of a bombing run or the accuracy of artillery often depended upon the nimble fingers of soldiers struggling with mechanical-type calculators. WWII also created the desperate need to perform mathematical calculations quickly, sometimes under adverse conditions. Although producing accurate results, the large, fixed-site machines required specialized training and were reserved for elaborate calculations, such as those carried out during the creation of the first atomic bombs by Project Trinity at Los Alamos during the 1940s, and required teams of men to operate the expensively maintained machines. The more sophisticated models-those able to perform more than just fundamental mathematical operations-were available only to government, the military, and a few large businesses. Although many hand-crank and machine-type devices existed (the venerable keypunch cash register is such a mechanical calculator), prior to the 1960s, calculating machines were universally heavy, cumbersome, and expensive. BackgroundĬalculating machines date back to ancient Babylonian devices used to perform rote mathematical operations. Hand-held calculating machines, portable and accurate, subsequently became valuable fixtures in science, engineering, business, and education. The invention of the electronic pocket calculator in the 1960s ignited a world-wide microelectronics revolution. For this calculation you will also need to know the beam angle of the light.įor example, an MR16 downlight bulb with 500 lumens and a 60˚ beam angle above your kitchen bench would produce about 264 lux at a bench height 1.5m from the ceiling.Calculators: A Pocket-Sized Revolution Overview To calculate the lux level at a certain distance from a given light, you can use the following calculator instead. Lux Level at a Certain Distance From a Light The layout of the space (light levels will be more intense the closer you are to each light, and less intense as you move further away).The reflectivity of nearby surfaces (eg. By definition, it cannot take into account other factors, such us: Please Note: the above is a rough calculation method only.
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