> *The Water Integrator was an early analog computer built in the Soviet Union i... | Hacker News

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		323 on Nov 5, 2022 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Quantum winter is coming > The Water Integrator was an early analog computer built in the Soviet Union in 1936 by Vladimir Sergeevich Lukyanov. It functioned by careful manipulation of water through a room full of interconnected pipes and pumps. The water level in various chambers (with precision to fractions of a millimeter) represented stored numbers, and the rate of flow between them represented mathematical operations. This machine was capable of solving inhomogeneous differential equations. https://www.techspot.com/trivia/97-1930s-which-countries-bui... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_integrator

robocat on Nov 5, 2022 [–]

Here’s an analogue computer called the MONIAC from ~1949 that calculates monetary flow in an economy: https://www.engineeringnz.org/programmes/heritage/heritage-r... with a fairly naff video of it operating but captures the essence: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rAZavOcEnLg

I like the COMPAQ branding added to it!

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