8 Mar
2005
8 Mar
'05
11:32 a.m.
Not that it couldn't be taken care of.. Bamboo has "partitions" every
foot to 6", you'd have to
split it, cut out the partitions, and tie it back together.
If the desert island has vines you could make a rope computer, as
described in a
Scientific American, I don't remember the issue.
8 Mar
8 Mar
8:59 p.m.
Ron Hudson wrote:
...
If the desert island has vines you could make a rope
computer, as
described in a
Scientific American, I don't remember the issue.
It was an april fool's issue, I believe. If memory serves, the island
was called APRLFUL or something like that. The article showed how, with
clever arrangements pullies, toggles, springs and such, inverters and
simple logic gates could be produced. Entertaining enough.
The problem with that "computer" is that the logic gates have no gain.
Each gate has no power supply other than the mechanical power of the
input signals (ropes getting pulled). For instance, say you pull an
input rope of a NAND gate one foot (OK, let's keep it metric) ten inches
:-) and the output rope moves nine inches, so the gain is 0.9. Put N of
these gates in series and the output signal is (0.9**N) of the input
signal. After half a dozen gates, very little is left at the output.
The rope gates had a gain much less than 0.9 -- probably 0.5.
It is the same reason why computers aren't built of of just diodes and
resistors. You can have a gate or two in series, but then the signal
needs to be reconditioned before being applied to the next stage.
9:23 p.m.
Jim Battle wrote:
Ron Hudson wrote:
...
What you want is 'reversable logic'. Mechanical logic may make a come
back in
computing since moliecular sized logic can use very little power.
Ben alias woodelf
If the desert island has vines you could make a
rope computer, as
described in a
Scientific American, I don't remember the issue.
It was an april fool's issue, I believe. If memory serves, the island
was called APRLFUL or something like that. The article showed how,
with clever arrangements pullies, toggles, springs and such, inverters
and simple logic gates could be produced. Entertaining enough.
The problem with that "computer" is that the logic gates have no gain.
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bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
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