Curta Variations & Marketing. 12 Days of Curtsmas 10

12 Days of Curtsmas Chapter 10: Variations & Marketing
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.
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
Marketing images from www.curta.li
Black Curta Type 2 from Wikimedia user Prioryman, CC-BY-SA-4.0, commons.wikime...
Type 1 & Type 2 together from Flikr user Bephep2010, CC-BY-2.0,
flickr.com/pho...
Early Curta with "Curta" logo from Museum of Science and Technology Belgrade, donated to Wikimedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0,
commons.wikime...
Top of Curta Type 2 ©Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons),
commons.wikime...
Curta Type 2 with red ring of doink ©Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons),
pl.m.wikipedia...
Curta Type 2 with box ©Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons),
commons.wikime...
Gray Type 2 shot from above from Wikimedia user Oldsoft, CC-BY-SA-4.0, commons.wikime...
Several Curtas with cases from Wikimedia user Daderot, CC0 1.0, commons.wikime...

[@aleksihermonen9017]

It makes me sad to think that there's only two more Curtsmas episodes left. I absolutely love this series. Hopefully there will be reruns on every year to come.

[@MattMcIrvin]

There are no penguins in North Greenland, CURTA

[@aleksihermonen9017]

At least not since CURTA. Coincidence? I think not.

[@pankoBreadCroisant]

I'm still giggling about them serious KNURLS. This series is fun

[@jogloran]

A Curta video made me laugh more than any other KZbin video in 2023. I don’t know what that says about me

[@pierQRzt180]

About the series of five ads. 1. "several auditors have tested the value of the Curta...." 2. (with the rocket resembling a V2) "the leaders of the largest nuclear research centers in Europe and overseas use Curta calculators" because why not, mix all together. Nuclear stuff, rockets, planets. 3. with the falling airplane. "So they though in the De Havilland factories, they made Curta in the standard equipment of every engineer and technician" (Havilland produced airplanes and bombers for UK in the 2nd ww) 4. Mountains. "Curta masters also the highest mountains! It accompanied, at over 7000 meters, the successful british expedition to the Mt. Everest" 5. "The british north greenland expedition used two curta for two years on the ice of Greenland"

[@hendrikd2113]

Based on the third one, I would say, this add is from before 1953. Especially with the plane nosediving.

[@ChrisStaecker]

Curta.li has it labeled as 1956. But I don't know how accurate that is...

[@johnsrabe]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="323">5:23</a> “They coulda done better.” From the most equable man on KZbin, a stinging rebuke.

[@ChrisStaecker]

Sometimes I gotta just let loose. I’m not here to make friends!

[@johnsrabe]

@@ChrisStaecker Too late! It’s already happened.

[@willj1598]

I don't know of many phrases that are as enjoyable to say as "knurled knob"

[@colinstu]

Move over Curta, I want the Quinta.

[@gabedamien]

I can't believe I never thought to use my Curtas for penguin related purposes before

[@kalleguld]

the CURTA + SAVES = HOURS looks like a digit substitution puzzle. S is the digit 3. A looks like it's the digit 0. That's as far as I got :)

[@ChrisStaecker]

Yes- this was my interpretation. But other than saying A=0, it seems ambiguous. The whole thing will work out if you set everything to 0 except S=3 and C=1. But I'm sure there are other solutions too.

[@kalleguld]

@@ChrisStaecker Will it? U+A = O only works if there's a carry-over from R+V

[@ChrisStaecker]

@@kalleguld Sorry- also H=4. So it ends up saying 10000 + 30003 = 40003. Right?

[@ChrisStaecker]

Oh OK- I think you're saying that each letter corresponds to a unique digit! In that case maybe there is a unique solution. That's a better interpretation. I'll let someone else figure it out!

[@MattMcIrvin]

@@ChrisStaecker These things are usually like cryptograms--you assume the digit assignments are unique. But not assuming that seems like a very Actual Mathematician thing to do.

[@vvalerio77]

Are the movable metal tab things just for the users reference, or do they have a deeper purpose? Was this covered and I missed it?

[@ChrisStaecker]

They’re just cosmetic for the user. I mentioned it in episode 1. They help keep track of the decimal point, but I usually don’t use them.

[@j_omega_t]

My take-away on the penguin ad: someone ported Linux to the Curta!

[@ChrisStaecker]

I ALMOST said "Beowulf cluster" in this video, but I restrained myself.

[@j_omega_t]

...and I was waiting for you to say it! LOL.@@ChrisStaecker

[@ociemitchell]

Penguins in the "British North Greenland Expidition"?

[@thisnicklldo]

Engineers, mathematicians and ad agency types huh. Completely oblivious to the natural world.

[@eric67361]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="445">7:25</a> all I see in the puzzle is what the right-most column spells... Apparently A + 3 = 3, or ASS?

[@maxmn5821]

Marvelous parallel computing. Fancy founding the next prime number?

[@StephenRansom47]

🤔 about that leather case: I wonder if anyone has the pattern online? Holy Etsy 😱 that would be cool - New Made Cases. … and they could be made out of NON-animal material. 😅

[@getjaketospace]

Curta

[@nickmoniker]

I really want to see if you could do that calculation in 6 seconds.

[@nickmoniker]

Which brought to mind this question: Do you think there is any kind of calculation that you could do faster on a Curta than an electronic calculator?

[@ChrisStaecker]

I've been thinking about it, but I have a hard time coming up with something. Maybe if I had a big number and somebody asked me to just shout out all of its multiples one after another, like 247, 494, 741, 988, 1235 etc. This is very easy to do if I have a Curta, and a bit of a pain with a normal calculator. (But easy with a spreadsheet.)

[@MattMcIrvin]

@@nickmoniker I have an old Addiator-type adding device lying around on my desk because I was posting pictures of it on Mastodon a while ago. The other day we were playing Kismet, a dice game that's... well, it's basically Yahtzee with a different trademark, and I was totaling up my score at the end and I grabbed that thing and just did the total with it. And I'm not sure it was significantly slower than using the calculator app on my phone. For just adding up a column of numbers, a lot of old-timey adding machines are probably as fast as or faster than a ten-key calculator--especially something like a Comptometer. But probably not the Curta because you'd have to set all the little sliders and turn the crank--seems like incremental multiplication is its strongest suit, like in those road rallies.

[@hujackus]

I found 4 more solutions with subtraction: 42186-36973=05213 45786-36213=09573 57196-36483=20713 87216-36493=50723

[@hujackus]

The solution is 51670+30493=82163 yay