danbrew
Joined: 05 Apr 2016 Posts: 3 Location: Chicago
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 7:41 pm Post subject: New Curta owner... and how do I...? |
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Hello everyone, I've lusted after a Curta for years and finally acquired a Type II (518651) and am really enjoying it. It looks as if it came off the assembly line yesterday and I've cycled it through some basic operations and am pretty thrilled with it.
My question for you is this... are there some exercises that helped you to learn Curta operation? I've gone through all of the sample exercises in the owner's manuals you can find online. Addition? Subtraction? Multiplication? Multiplication? Shortcut multiplication? Operations with decimals? All no problem.
I've only had it a few days, but feel pretty comfortable with all of those operations. The division is throwing me a bit.
I can follow along with the instructions and get the same results, but there isn't an "ah ha" moment in my mind the same way there was for the rest. Maybe I'm slow... lol.
This is kind of throwing me...
Quote: | For divisions giving quotients with several digits, before operating you place the carriage into one of its higher positions, corresponding to the number of digits expected for the quotient. If, for instance, you start operating with the carriage in position 3 you will obtain a quotient of 3 digits. However, to avoid unnecessary thinking, the general rule to follow is to start every division with the carriage in its highest position (pos. 6 for CURTA I and pos. 8 for CURTA II). As soon as the required degree of accuracy (number of digits) for the quotient has been attained or when the division finishes you break off the calculation as the following example will show.
Remark: When the divisor is a large number it mill not always be possible to start operating in the highest position of the carriage and one of the next lower positions will have to be chosen so that all the digits of the divisor are transferred into the left-hand part of the black dial with the first plus turn of the handle. |
If any of you Curta pros have any thoughts, recommendations, or sample exercises you can recommend to help me master the division I'd greatly appreciate it.
dan |
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