A Computer for Solving Linear Simultaneous Equations

Abstract

The mathematical principles of the classical iterative method of solving linear simultaneous equations are discussed. Basic electrical circuits for setting up an analog of the mathematical relations are given, and a commercial model of a 12-equation computer is briefly described. The results of solving a number of problems on the computer are given to illustrate its accuracy and speed of operation. It is found that solving sets of 12 equations requires only 1/4 to 1/7 the time required by conventional methods.

ChemCalc: A Building Block for Tomorrow’s Chemical Infrastructure

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] Digital and personal computers, followed by the Internet and the World Wide Web have naturally strengthened this long-standing tradition. Today, it has become trivial to write that computers are everywhere and that they can take up an ever-increasing part of a worker's daily burden.…”

“…The use of computers for solving chemical problems is almost as old as modern computing itself, with practical examples in physical and analytical chemistry published before 1950. − Digital and personal computers, followed by the Internet and the World Wide Web have naturally strengthened this long-standing tradition. In particular, numerous examples demonstrate that the Web browser has become a mature platform for general (Google Apps being a typical example , ) or chemical computing. − For software providers, this platform facilitates the deployment of their products, since any update (fixing security problems or introducing new features) can be made immediately available to all users.…”

Mass Spectrometer Analysis of Some Oxygenated Compounds. The Sorption Problem

“…The peaks chosen to define each component are listed at the left, so that in Table II propyl alcohol is determined by the 60 peak, sec-butyl alcohol is determined by the 59 peak, etc. (1).…”

COMIC: An Analog Computer in the Colorant Industry

“…One by Rawlyn Mallock set up equation coefficients on tapped transformers, 14 and it was used at the University of Cambridge in the mid-1930s. Another was built in the mid-1940s by Clifford Berry 15 for use with a mass spectrometer in the petroleum industry. 16 This class of computer has received little attention in histories of analog computing (one exception is an article by H. Petzold on William Cauer's computer 17 ).…”