History of Calculating Machines

Sophia Davis, University of Cambridge [read Sophia's biography]

Summary

First videoconference: 3 October 2008, 10.30am
Second videoconference: 4 November 2008, 10.30am

This conference is aimed at 12-14 year-old students. The cost is £180 for up to 40 students, more pro rata (costs can be split between more than one school if they are at the same VC centre).
This conference will consist of two linked VCs with project work to be done in school between the VCs.
More information about our conferences

To reserve a place on this conference, go to Get involved! and contact Adrian Cullum-Hanshaw, 01223 764106 or 0774 703 5984, to arrange a videoconferencing connection test.

Live from Cambridge's Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Sophia Davis will demonstrate some of the tools of calculation from different stages in our past and present. She will give a brief history of four particular instruments:

  • the slide rule
  • the abacus
  • the mechanical calculator
  • the now ubiquitous electronic calculator.

For the older tools, she will show a few different styles of instruments and give a short explanation of how they work. Coming nearer to the present day, the Whipple has a large collection of electronic calculators from the 1970s and early 1980s, which are visually entertaining.

In the project work (to be done between the two VCs), students will be asked to chose a mathematical device (from a range of suggestions) on which to do a research project, and to design a mathematical game using this tool.

Schools booked into this conference or on the waiting list

Project work

Suggestions for follow-up project work

Additional resources

For use during VC1:

For use in follow-up work