Have you used your calculator for something that was not really math related?

[Rogier]

(03-02-2019 05:31 PM)ijabbott Wrote:  

(03-02-2019 01:15 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Now the cassette players of the time had non-linear tape counters. There was no 1:1 relation between the playing time of the music and the counter.

AFAIK, the compact cassette has a constant tape speed of 1+7/8 in/s (4.7625 cm/s) so the tape counter ought to be geared from that. But the linear relationship between time and change in counter value would reasonably vary between models.

The relationship between counter value and time was definitely non-linear. I programmed my HP11 tot convert between the two. For converting counter value to time I had to add a sinus-like function (doing one cycle per side-length 45 minutes) to a straight line. If anyone is interested I'll post it. Particularly useful for owners of a working early '80s Philips cassette player.

Some other non-math applications:
* games; Mastermind, Mahjong-scores (both posted), Blackjack.
* dice (like many others)
* medical calculations:
- multiple category-counter (for counting white bloodcells by type)
- expected lung volumes for a given sex, age & height,
- blood-gas analysis
- body surface area
- glomerular filtration rate (eGFR/MDRD)