Rabid for numbered bones


I am absorbing a great deal of information from the 2009 American Statistical Association’s Quality & Productivity Research Conference at IBM’s Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.   However, since IBM sold off their PC business to the Chinese manufacturer Lenovo, I am not quite sure what’s being researched at this facility.  The official word is that IBM now provides “solutions.”  See if you can puzzle things out from this 2009 newsletter .  But, for those who are hard-core ‘techies’, check out this impressive list of IBM R&D projects, which include such things as quantum mirages and blue genes.

IBM presents an impressive collection of calculating devices in the lobby of this R&D center.  For example, see pictured an actual 1617 set of Napier’s bones made by the Scottish inventor of logarithms.  Via a process called rabdology (from the Greek “rabid” for rod, and “logos” for calculating), these numbered rods of skeletal origin facilitated multiplication and the computation of square and cube roots.  

PS. Coincidentally, I just saw the latest Star Trek movie.  Being an engineer by profession, I am naturally drawn to the character Scotty.  Having seen what his ancestor Napier did with bones (not to be confused with the Star Trek doctor “Bones”), I now understand why the Enterprise engineer is such a wizard.   Given enough time, these Scots will solve any technical problem.   “I canna change the laws of physics! I’ve got to have thirty minutes.Napier's bones

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