alt Hacker NewsPlaying this for a few turns and you will see why they developed the banjo and then the Torpedo Data Computer. I am currently reading a fiction submarine warfare book (entertaining with warts) and they cover the switch over.
The book is Sink the Rising Sun.
The TDC is described well here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo_Data_Computer
Manual for the banjo here. Imagine a slide rule that could solve the problems in this game (given perfect input data) - https://maritime.org/doc/banjo/index.php
> Imagine a slide rule that could solve the problems in this game (given perfect input data)
I love reading about physical tools made to solve very specific computational problems. Beyond all kinds of weird-shaped, weirdly-scaled, often circular-ish slide rule variants, this includes also all kinds of charts that are effectively currying a complex mathematical function into something with 2-4 parameters and plotting them over useful range, so you can quickly read a specific result for a specific situation.
On the one hand, this is a relic of times before general-purpose computers; today, you'd just code the equations up and even automate their use. On the other hand, those physical artifacts usually have superior UX, especially if the computer equivalent would require you to input any data. No surprise these things keep showing up in the history of high-stakes endeavors, whether it's submarines or battleships or space orbiters.