Log-antilog table booklet

Since everyone in my school had one of those little brown books of log and trig tables I felt sure that eBay etc would be awash with copies - wrong!

I've been trying to buy a set and all Amazon etc have are expensive tomes of historical reprints. Did we all throw them away?

anyone know of a source, preferably of 7 figure log and antilog tables (I know you can download limited versions but they are not user friendly )

Tony

Do you want hard copy, or just the function?

If just function, Scientific calculators provide logs and antilogs, and are available pretty cheaply now.

If I were a computer buff, I could probably tell you how to use Excel in a similar way!

Howard

You could get a copy of Zeus tables, log and antilog tables are included along with many other useful stuff.

Hi Tony,

I only have a set of 4-figure logs.

I have to ask, what do you want them for in a time of scientific calculators and spreadsheets?

Neil

Tony,

Have a look at Abe

MichaelG.

As soon as they invented the pocket calculator, I was the first to bin my log tables!!!

I have a slide rule if anyone wants it, hasn't been used for years.

Edit, and an Abacus.

Edited By Engine Builder on 30/09/2014 17:45:52

Hi Tony,
The scientific view of the calculator on widows 7 gives logs to 30 decimal places.

Les.

A word or two of explanation : I am keen to get a hard copy of the secondary school tables of my youth as part of a personal archive of my technical education. In dealing with post graduate engineering students of today I am struck by the lack of intuitive grasp shown in some of the underlying maths (they just believe what the screen tells them!) and how quickly the methods of my own training are disappearing without trace -I should say that these remarks are confine to British and American students!

as an aside I am convinced that students using digital devices are at a disadvantage compared with those of us who used tables and slide rules since they get one answer to the calculation while we saw the analogue range of answers either side of the calculated figure. I claim that for some calculations such as those involved in the design of fluid flow systems (sizing of gravel pump systems etc) a slide rule is superior to a calculator since you see the range of possible answers above and below the calculated figure. Using log tables has the same analogue effect as, in engineering there is rarely an exactly correct answer but one where you have to choose a standard steel section or pipe size rather than a nonexistent calculated form and add a safety factor of your own choice. Life is analogue.

i am also convinced that calculation using log tables gives an intuitive grasp of the underlying maths that is a good foundation to dealing with far less intuitive areas of engineering such as steam tables and entropy. As for believing the computer I relate a true account of finding a power correction figure used by the engine test cells of a major UK manufacturer. It puzzled me and I asked the chief test engineer of its genesis. It had been inherited from his predecessor and never been challenged - it transpired that for almost 8 years engine power had been over stated by some 2 percent because nobody had an intuitive 'feel' for the numbers.

Rant over

We had a book called Napiers Nautical Tables for doing stuff at sea and I'm pretty sure they included Logs

Like most thickies I joined the mad dash for calculators when they became available

You can find various stuff here

Edited By Ady1 on 30/09/2014 20:52:22

Tony,

I think you will appreciate the sentiment in my post, timed 22:53:21 on this previous thread.

MichaelG.

An unexpected side effect of the digital revolution is that the humble British adder, vipera berus, is a threatened species.

after all, how can an adder multiply...

without log tables?

sorry!

Edited By John Haine on 30/09/2014 21:28:00

I don't know that I'd agree that log-functions demonstrate the underlying maths for a multiplication operation. They are a convenient workaround to avoid the rigours of long-multiplication of many-digit numbers but they aren't fundamental to the operation.

Hi John, the adder souldn't have any trouble multipling, after all, multiplication is only adding by a faster method.

e.g. 3 X 12 = 36 which is the same as; 12 + 12 + 12 = 36. No log tables were disturbed in ether calculation.

Regards Nick.

I still have my "putty" coloured set of ;-

" FOUR-FIGURE MATHEMATICAL TABLES"

BY

FRANK CASTLE M.I.MECH.E.

I notice that I have drawn a fine red cross across the pages of the "ANTILOGARITHMS" - anyone who has used these tables to any extent will know why!

I did also have another, rather more accurate, set of tables in an orange cover ( I can't put my hand on that at he moment)

Thank goodness for caculators and computers I say!

( I do still have my course notes for Advanced Microwave Radio principles - I course where I gained a distinction. If ever I feel a bit smart about anything I get these out and look through them. -- I don't understand a blooming word!)

Regards

Norman

A quick check and it took me less than a minute to find my SMP log tables, though I haven't used them for a decade as I also have Machinery handbook in a closer bookshelf.

Calculators can lead one astray. I was recently examining a design from the 1930's or earlier and puzzled that a dimension was not an obvious 'round figure'. I was using Excel. I then recalculated using the value of sine 15 degrees given in tables instead of the computer and it all fell into place. This in turn indicated how the original manufacturer had made the part quite easily without a CNC mill.

.

And thereby [via Lorenz] to chaos theory, etc.

MichaelG.

.

Edit: added hyperlink

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 01/10/2014 06:22:37

Tony,

I have a scruffy set of 5 figure log tables, been sitting on ny bookshelf since I left collegemany years ago. If they are of use to you, let me have your address.

Regards

John

I have a copy of the Cambridge logs that I had at school in the early 60s, and one I got a few months back that was my brother in law's, it's "Physical and Mathematical Tables" by Clark.

Ian S C

Slide rules were far superior to calculators for finding a pair of standard value resistors to give a desired ratio. Of course now I would probably write a Python script to do the job on a computer - it would only take about 100 times as long!

Russell