Calculator widens scope of practical mathematics

This versatile calculating machine recendy was presented by International Business Machines Corporation to Harvard University to be used by the United States Navy for the duration. Employing a unique automatic sequence control which receives problems on a coded tape, the machine will solve practically any known problem to 23 significant figures, including problems involving computation and tabulation of functions, evaluation of integrals, solution of simultaneous linear algebraic equations, and harmonic and statistical analysis. Its basic performance comprises addition, subtraction, use of parentheses and brackets, multiplication, division, interpolation or the location of values of functions in mechanical tables of mathematical functions, card punching of computations, card feeding, and storage of numerical data. Particularly benefited by such calculations are the fields of atomic physics, electronics, actuarial work, optics, and astronomy. The operator of the machine need not be a trained mathematician, but the problem must be coded by one.