Re: [HM] Rheticus
Roger Cooke (cooke@emba.uvm.edu)
Thu, 24 Sep 1998 07:56:33 -0400 (EDT)
I'm not an expert in this area, but I understood that these tables were
compiled to meet the needs of astronomical computations. Since
trigonometric tables can be used in place of logarithms (prosthapheresis),
they can save a lot of labor (multiplying two 10-digit numbers requires
100 separate multiplications of single-digit numbers, plus a lot of
carrying, followed by adding 20 columns, some of which have ten digits in
them). If you need only the first ten digits of the answer, it makes much
more sense just to add the logarithms, or performe the equivalent slightly
more complicated procedure (based on the addition formula for sines) using
the trigonometric trable.
Roger Cooke