MACHINES THAT THINK

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 83, 24 April 1937, Page 13

MACHINES THAT THINK

Problems May Be Answered

Oomplicated mathematical problems •re now so usual in research work, particularly in physics, that seientists are coming pnoie and more to depend on macMnes to do the laborious work ontailed in their solution, just as banks, insurance offices, and other big commercial concerns nse mechanical calcnlatore to redncO the time formerly employed by clerks to do sums in arith»etic with head, pen and paper. Cambridge University is to spend at least £10,000 within the next few years in building and setting up a computing laboratory. Many of the instruments to be installed are so ingenious that they eeem to the nninitiated to be aetnally thinldng. One of the flrst of these mathematical instruments to be invented was made in 1814 to measure directly the area bounded by an irregular curve. This was subsequently developed as the s'planimeter" and is now ma|e in forms which solve directly and quickly many problems Connected with irregu-

lar plaue flgqroa, which would take kours to work out by algebra and arithmetic. The most complicated mathematical instrument in the world is the "product integraph" at the Institute of Technology, Massachusetts. This instrument, which is some eighteen feet long, is driven by electricity and answere some mathematical problems, which are far too complex for the human brain to tackle. Most mathematical equations can tio repxesented as a curve drawn on 8quared paper. In the "product integraph" the equations concerned in the different parts of the problem to be solved are fed into appropriate places in the machine' and the answer is read as another curve at the end. Computations. which wouid take weeks to complete by the old methods can be finished in a few bours, by this. instrument. Problems that would take an hour or so can be done in a few niinutes.