Addition and subtraction on the Curta. 12 Days of Curtsmas 1

12 Days of Curtsmas Chapter 1: Addition and subtraction.
This is a Curta Type I, built in 1952. Stay tuned for episodes every other day, December 3 - 25. Thanks as always to the person who gave me the Curta.
Chapter 11 (December 23) will be a mailbag episode! So please ask questions, etc.
End song inspired by "Hotter than a Molotov" by The Coup. • The Coup: Hotter Than ...
Jingle bells sound from www.freesoundsl..., CC-BY-4.0

[@GeorgMierau]

The amount of people suddenly "needing" a Curta after this video is definitely greater than zero!

[@ro_yo_mi]

Confirmed!

[@Klaevin]

they've "needed" curtas for 80 years, now. this video hasn't changed much in the Curta market

[@DFabry10]

I feel the need

[@ChrisStaecker]

@Klaevin harsh but true

[@Beldraen]

If anyone deserves to have one, you do. You have a complete appreciation of the value and history of machines like this. Thinking about it, I think you would be a great curator for a museum of historical calculation devices. Keep adding up!

[@jamiekawabata7101]

Agreed!

[@LeoStaley]

To be fair, most people who are collectors of these things collect them exactly because of their profound appreication of the value and history of these things. Chris is not unique in this regard. But it's not a competition. I assure you that when Chris finds someone else who shares this appreciation, it's like finding a lost member of your family. You share an instant kinship in a way lots of people rarely or never experience. CS Lewis spoke at length about this kind of human connection in The Four Loves, and for him his first experience of it was over Norse mythology of all things. Hang on. I think I veered off topic a bit. Anyway, im delighted someone gifted it to him, it is in excellent hands.

[@Pallethands]

I was going to leave a like, but we'll leave that for later

[@syedrafiqkazim448]

The little nerdy giggle after every "we'll leave that for later" is just so endearing

[@clayupton7439]

🤣The ending sequence with 1000 curtas

[@ChrisStaecker]

so many memories

[@unspeakablevorn]

The negative numbers are stored as 10s complement! I am pretty sure you've covered this before in some video or other. It's super neat, and also similar to the way that integers are stored on most modern computers (which because they use base 2, use 2s complement) You can think of it as having a stonking huge power of 10 that you're actually adding and subtracting from and only looking at the last few digits. Also works with multiplication, but division doesn't work anywhere near as neatly.

[@unspeakablevorn]

Also getting you a Curta is one of those things I would have done if I were suddenly a millionaire but that doesn't look likely any time soon so I'm glad somebody else did it first

[@thalesfm]

You can look at it like modular arithmetic too! In that case the readout always shows the result of the calculation modulo 10¹¹

[@kaisalmon1646]

He was "leaving that for later, heh"!

[@ChrisStaecker]

Yes I had written about 30 more seconds explaining that the Curta (the type 1, which has 11 answer digits) actually does all of its calculations in the group of integers modulo 100000000000. And in this group, a "negative number" like -7 looks like 99999999993 because it is actually EQUAL to 99999999993. And conversely every "positive number" like 1234 is also equal to a negative number like -99999999876.

[@green9090]

So a few years ago I had to learn Real Analysis and found amazing lectures on this channel. By an insane coincidence, my grandpa was gifted a Curta II because his name is Curt, and he asked me to figure out how it works since I'm the one math guy he knows. Incredible that this channel is a one stop shop for these two purposes. Also, it seems like the Curta stores negatives in 10's complement the same way a computer stores them in 2's complement. Amazing that this concept was invented for mechanical calculation before the electronic calculator existed!

[@jaapsch2]

Even this guy did one! Haha! I love the series so far. Entertaining and enlightening as usual

[@getjaketospace]

I swear I was sitting on the couch yesterday when I had the thought "I hope Chris gets a Curta"

[@r0bhumm]

Congratulations on obtaining a cutter, no matter how it happened. I’m the proud owner of a mark two and I must say the feel of the mechanism turning when you crank the handle is remarkable

[@tiredtait9660]

Other people have curta videos, you have the one I want to watch

[@matthewwelch7191]

I love all the Curta glamor shots at the end of the video. That was a nice surprise.

[@retrogiftsuk4812]

Looks like I'm late to the party here, but that just means I've got multiple videos to watch... Lucky me!

[@j_omega_t]

I just want to thank whoever sent that to you!

[@Klaevin]

nice CGI rendition of a Curta. we aren't all fooled, though. We know those are outrageously expensive and impossible to acquire

[@potatorodka2795]

The ending photos genuinely make me laugh out loud.

[@shayne87]

Until I can one day find a good one at a good price I will live vicariously through your uploads. I practice once in a while on the emulators. The 2 dimensional one is way less buggy than the 3D. It's ironic I use a digital computer to simulate an analog device and to top it all off I suck at math and absolutely hated math class. It's the mechanics that pull me in

[@KungFuMojo]

"So what am I going to do, make zero videos about the Curta? No, I'm gonna make 12 videos about the Curta!" LOL!

[@pierQRzt180]

I do think that even when other channels already do videos, it is good to have "redundancy". Videos can be deleted from other channels or they can explain things differently. So yes, redundancy can be good.

[@kingsleyyung8819]

Congratulations on getting a Curta

[@reneejones6330]

I am so glad you finally got a Curta! I can't wait for each video and I will follow along with mine.

[@colinstu]

"doink" over is definitely the technical term xD

[@Vallee152]

IDK why, but I find the ending collage being of just the curta very funny

[@redoktopus3047]

holy heck does that zeroing ring sound like an arthropod monster hatching

[@someonespadre]

The problem works on my Monroe too. If a column of numbers is added or subtracted and the final answer is a negative number, key it on the keyboard and subtract twice (with repeat on) which will result in the absolute value of the negative number answer.

[@Joe_VanCleave]

Great video, looking forward to the series! The Curta reminds me of a pinwheel machine wrapped into a circle. Speaking of pinwheel machines, I just got a Marchant pinwheel calculator, the first thing I did was 355/113 to approximate Pi. Fun stuff!

[@MattMcIrvin]

I think of that as the Jaap Scherphuis maneuver now.

[@MattMcIrvin]

...The amazing thing is that the Curta is really a stepped-drum machine like an Arithmometer, but all wrapped around one drum, but I suppose he's going to get to that.

[@Pallethands]

And suddenly, just like that, every Curta on eBay just went up in price.

[@ClausB252]

Negatives appear as the 10's complement. Some old decimal computers did that too.

[@JustSomePasserby]

Congrats on the Curta. I'm looking forward to the other videos about it. It is a fantastic piece of history, especially to people who are overly fascinated by complicated gearing systems, like myself.

[@jero37]

What a fantastic gift! Lovely to see, this is also some of the best photography I've seen of a Curta.

[@jeremiahbaker985]

That laugh is too much like Beavis and Butthead😂👍👍

[@vinesthemonkey]

Jaap is a puzzle legend

[@Rosseloh]

IT ARRIVES

[@OldManBOMBIN]

I want Chris and Ordinary Sausage to do a crossover so that OS can make a $70B Curta Sausage and Chris can learn to count on a $493T lobster

[@derekkuhl]

The Curta videos have arrived. Christmas can officially begin!🎉

[@pierQRzt180]

"we'll leave that for later, hehe"

[@TheGelatinousSnake]

Driving up demand again!

[@AradijePresveti]

Here we go!

[@farpointgamingdirect]

I've been trying to get a Curta for years

[@pierQRzt180]

ohhhh the curta, finally!

[@garrysekelli6776]

The winch who stole curtsmas.

[@LeoStaley]

I'm sad that you didn't receive it in its ORIGINAL PACKING

[@redoktopus3047]

greatest mechanical calculator ever created by man or beast? we'll see. can it to a fourier decomposition of a given curve?

[@fghggddcthhjng]

It can do only FT, not FFT. That's why Mr Michelson invented a specialized machine for it kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHLWfmZmgqZ7gsksi=0_BLnb0jn8FidKMI

[@Nashvillain10SE]

Greatest for basic arithmetic operations.

[@getjaketospace]

Can any mechanical calculator?

[@MattMcIrvin]

@@getjaketospace Yes! kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHLWfmZmgqZ7gsk

[@redoktopus3047]

@@getjaketospace i'm about to make your day! look up "introducing a 100 year old mechanical computer" by bill the engineer guy.

[@Lilac757]

For the algorithm.

[@shko0729]

CURTA機械式計算機壱式

[@julesinspaaace]

Hehh!

[@nunyabiznes33]

Pepper mill computer