Paper Calculator

August 19, 2016 10:45 AM

Jason Shiga makes a paper calculator.
Shiga previously, previously, previously.
posted by latkes (14 comments total)

My personal favorite Shiga creation is Bookhunter, which is insanely amazing if you happened to have grown up going to the Oakland Public Library Main Branch as a kid in the 70s and 80s...
posted by latkes at 10:48 AM on August 19, 2016 [7 favorites]

I am adding and subtracting
I'm controlling and composing
I'm the operator with my paper calculator
I'm the operator with my paper calculator
posted by Naberius at 10:54 AM on August 19, 2016 [7 favorites]

I love Jason Shiga! There aren't too many people out there with a degree in pure mathematics who also make choose-your-own-adventure kids' graphics novels.
posted by redsparkler at 11:21 AM on August 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Is it me, or were the "mazes" way more complicated than necessary, or was that the point?
posted by wittgenstein at 11:22 AM on August 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

I don't think they were significantly more complicated than necessary, because they had to pass through two digits to reveal the answer. It took me a moment to figure out what was happening after the = sign.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:29 AM on August 19, 2016

Shades of the Bell Labs CARDIAC (CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation)!

Now if Jason and the Tapigami guy got together to build a 3-D art calculator, that would be something...
posted by foonly at 11:57 AM on August 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

I actually own a CARDIAC. I have to say reading the manual was more fun than actually "using" the device. YMMV.
posted by wittgenstein at 12:00 PM on August 19, 2016

Wow that Bookhunter comic is great! I was completely unfamiliar with Jason Shiga. Great post!
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:04 PM on August 19, 2016

My kids love Jason Shiga, and say that they prefer the books to the apps, so if you're discovering him now and interested, the recommendation of the Not That Girl Spawn is to buy the books. The Spawn feel that the books better showcase the complexity and genius of the design.
posted by not that girl at 12:07 PM on August 19, 2016

Awww, this is okay, I guess, but I thought this would be about the E6B 'Whiz Wheel" calculator. Somewhere I have a really cool one updated for aerospace use that my father liberated from Wright Patterson AFB in the 1960s.

Here's Spock using one in "The Naked Time".

Here are some demos:
Introduction
Multiplication and Division
Ground Speed
True Heading
True Altitude
Density Altitude
Rate of Fuel Consumption
Flight Time
Unknown Winds Aloft
 
posted by Herodios at 12:14 PM on August 19, 2016 [5 favorites]

I know a tiny human that has made this exact thing in Minecraft.
posted by adept256 at 12:40 PM on August 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Herodios, that reminds me of a Bearing Rate Computer used by the US Navy. You can do basic multiplication, division, and trigonometry with it. A lot of those plastic tac aids and slide rules are called "whiz wheels" still.
posted by MrFTBN at 1:46 PM on August 19, 2016

And if you take a whole bunch of these paper calculators and print them all on a silicon chip instead, you have a CPU.
posted by Autumn Leaf at 4:59 AM on August 20, 2016

I actually own a CARDIAC. I have to say reading the manual was more fun than actually "using" the device. YMMV.

They tend to choke on the longer metafilter election threads.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:08 PM on August 20, 2016