LESSON REVIEW #9A    

 Darlene Wilson...Volunteer Tutor              Cleophas Mike McAlpin......Chief Tutor    

  A History of Calculators..By Cleophas Mike McAlpin & Applications of Calculators           

                               ( McAlpin Family Member: See Story at very bottom of Page.)

Cousin Darlene Wilson...A Dedicated Volunteer Tutor

Darlene will be giving a class at her home in Apple Valley..9/17/2000

 Students in Attendance....Jeremiah, Jarrell, James, Michael, Sheena, Cleasena, Joshua, Dog Warrior-X3 

                           "Hey, you guys doing the tutoring. I'll run and get more help if you want me to. I just told a couple of my super-hero buddies to come and help."

   Drawing by our student, Nicole (15)... Destined for greatness as an artist. We will see to it!

"Warrior X-1, Quick! let's help the students with Scientific Calculators. Maybe a little bit of History will help. That Tutor, Mike, is dying to vent and we might as well listen to him."

Date  :     September 13, 2000 ...A Bit of Calculator History...by Cleophas "Mike" McAlpin

We were "human calculators" back in the day. We didn't have the advantage of those tiny electronic marvels that can make mincemeat of everything from SAT examinations to the construction of a high-rise in Manhattan. Those tiny calculators that now warm the palms of Middle and High School students around the world. Perhaps, it is fitting that these fortunate students be told a little of the history that precedes these modern-day electronic marvels... these Scientific Calculators.

Of course, I had no clue as to what the foot-long device was. It fit nicely in the hands of the Chemical Engineering students at the University of Illinois back in 1953, though. They moved one part of the device into the other with such grace and precision that all I could do was to sit dumbfounded and wonder about what the contraption was. I had heard the Professor say, "Slide Rules are allowed to find the forces of equilibrium on the ladder in your Physics 101 textbook, page 8. I want 5 significant figures in the answer". I surmised that the devices in the hands of the 25 other students were indeed "slide rules" and they were indeed used to calculate the magnitude and direction of the forces about a ladder that rested on the side of a building with a 200-pound man standing in the middle of it. 

I was an "A" student from a Southern College, but that did not help me. I was seriously handicapped because the only calculator that I knew was in my head. I could multiply and divide with speed and precision. I could not match that darned "slide rule" with its capability to solve a problem such as 23456 x 56789 x 98765 divided by 67898 x 34567 = ? in  record speed. ( I was met with such a problem in Chemistry 101 and given one minute to solve it!)

I soon found myself with a Slide Rule and the instructions and determination to figure it out. I was soon on my way to becoming a Chemical Engineer as the sleek, white instrument sat in its leather case and dangled from my belt. I became armed with a knowledge of "Scientific Notation" that was second to none. No one was going to flunk me out of a major University (99.99% Caucasian)  because a Southern College( 99.99% Black) didn't teach me what a slide rule was.

Enter the Army and a whole new ball of wax. "Sorry, Slide Rules are out, log tables are in."

How could one accurately lay ten 80-millimeter mortars and ten 105-millimeter Howitzers with such a device as a slide rule? After all, those land coordinates had to be extremely accurate. It was not a matter of peering at the divisions of a slide rule and selecting the one division that coincided with another. Good eyesight was the most critical element in the operation of a slide rule. Good logarithm tables were the critical elements in doing... Artillery Surveying.

Poor me. Because of my educational background in mathematics, I found myself in an Army uniform with a bunch of logarithm books in my backpack. I also had a Theodolite (angle measuring device), and a steel tape (distance measuring device). I also had a T-10 parachute strapped to my back. Poor me would see many, many calculations by using those log tables. And eyesight was even more critical in using them. So critical were those calculations, that 2 soldiers (surveyors) had to check each other for accuracy. Our answers to " lengthy coordinate problems " had to be identical. No ifs, ands or buts. How could all of the high powered ordinance from Howitzers and Mortars (that flew over my head) hit tanks out on a "target range" if our logarithm calculations were incorrect? Heaven forbid if our angular measurements were incorrect. Fort Campbell, Kentucky would have been reduced to rubble by all of that firepower! Thank God for those logarithm tables....and good candlelight.

Enter Electronics. Those wonderful vacuum tubes with all of that wonderful heat. Our 1948 Philco Radio (Fairfield, Alabama) served as a radio and a heater during those winter months. That 5U-4 rectifier tube (diode) was not only used to change alternating electrical current to direct current, it was also a means of keeping my hands warm. Someone mentioned "television" and he was promptly locked up in the "Looney bin". Someone mentioned "Integrated Circuit" and he too, was sent off to "never-never land." 

Those persistent Electronic Engineers finally came up with miniature vacuum tubes. Those tubes fit nicely in the "computer section" of the Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missile One (1962). They produced very little heat as they sat in one-half of a torroid section of the missile below the nose cone and did their thing (nuclear tipped nose cone, if desired). The other half of the missile, torroid section contained all types of electronic circuits that sat like little ice trays with their tubes, resistors, capacitors, transformers and... "I.F. amplifier" problems. Those same Engineers had to go back to the drawing board when too many missiles flew off course and had to be self-destructed. I had a "field day" stamping "REJECTED" on test page after test page when those missile computers "crapped out"  during our test procedures. I was a FUNCTIONAL TEST INSPECTOR, you see, and not inclined to "sell" the United States Air Force a pile of junk from the North American Aviation Company (Autonetics). And nothing got stamped with my stamp, "O.K.-552", that didn't work exactly as it was supposed to! Many an Engineer went home with tears in his eyes and a dislike for me when those little new-borne integrated circuits "crapped out" and refused to rectify, clip, shape, oscillate, amplify and differentiate electronic signals. Those electronic tubes, nor those new-found circuits, could take the vibrations or heat produced when a Minuteman popped from its underground silo. Some of those inertial guided missiles did hit their targets some 4000-5000 miles away, though. We all cheered when one of our Minuteman Missiles hit its mark (within 50 feet)! Enter good times when "stable platforms" remained fixed by spinning "Air-Bearing Gyroscopes and Velocity Meters mounted on those stable platforms accurately armed a warhead when the "descent velocity" of the Missile was properly calculated. Calculators were now only 20 years away.

Someone mentioned "transistor" and all eyes fell upon him. Could this be the little device that would save humanity from itself? Could it  be that those weapons of war could be made more reliable with this little germanium and silicon device? Could it be further down the road to make them do mathematical calculations for us?

But first things first. The first thing was to keep the little "solid state devices" known as transistors and integrated circuits from heating up too much. Goodness! Many a circuit board had been cooked when a power transistor decided to "act up" back in 1961 to 1963. Many an Electronic Engineer and Technician had sought another type of work when they were threatened to "make it work or else". Those threats could have come from the President of the United States. After all, there was a cold war going on (Russia Vs. America), you know. We could not afford to have a Russian walk in Space first or have a Russian walk on the moon before the All-Powerful United States of America.

The threats worked. We did build a more reliable rocket. We did put a man on the moon. We did come up with "integrated Circuits". We did bring the man back from the "Looney bin" who made mention of Integrated Circuits in the first place. We did set him to work on "Calculators."

Pulling a steel tape is no fun. A steel surveying tape has to be kept absolutely level by the two surveyors pulling it or the measurement of distance will be incorrect (1970). I have pulled quite a few during my career as a Civil Surveyor. The road around the Los Angeles Zoo might have had 20 curves in it if the steel tape had been pulled in a non-horizontal position. The road around the zoo might have led onto the Golden State Freeway instead of the zoo if it were not for that wonderful angle-measuring instrument, the "theodolite" (That wonderful angle-measuring device that probably sits in a museum and collects all kinds of dust nowadays). We could have used a modern surveyor's electronic distance-measuring-device back in the 1970's. I could have used a simple electronic calculator back in the 1960's. I could have had a wonderful time of it with these miracles of modern technology, but alas, I managed to struggle just ahead of that technology.

"You must be kidding! Three million dollars is a lot of money per month. You want me to figure out how much electrical power this major Oil Company uses by multiplying all of these large numbers....with no calculator? That should never be asked of any Electrical Metering Supervisor. Let alone me!

KB6YHI. I had to achieve that radio call sign and an Advanced Class Ham Operator's license without the use of a calculator. Working communication-electronics problem after problem without a calculator was just about as hard as my sending and receiving Morse Code at 20 words per minute.

The Department of Water and Power of the City of Los Angeles...and back to multiplying long-handed! No logarithms, please. The year 1965 or thereabouts...and still no signs of a calculator. Heck, color television had just been introduced. Who ever heard of a calculator? Heaven knows we needed one to calculate those "humongous" electric bills.

I was the Supervisor (1980 or thereabouts) and I was determined to smoke out a calculator. I found one somewhere. I was as big as a modern day computer monitor, but it could multiply two or more numbers and display them on a screen. It was truly a miracle! No more "chewings out" by an irate DWP million dollar customer whose Engineers sat up all night to catch one of our guys in a $ mistake. They must have had 5 Engineers multiplying long-handed all night!

Enter the modern day calculator (1988 or thereabouts). They were too costly for all of the Department's employees to carry. The electric metering data had to be brought into the office where a couple of calculators stood smiling and ready.  Perhaps, one can get a true sense of "expensive" when it is recognized only a few  employees had calculators. As a matter of fact, the use of such devices was frowned upon by some superiors. Perhaps, there was not enough trust.

Enter Scientific Calculators at $8.99 each! Enter this modern day miracle. Enter those bright students who use them without knowing a thing about their origin. All they know is to hit a key and to watch a digital display "scream out" the answer. Do I sound a little bitter? You are darned right! Why? Because some of students refuse to learn how to hit those keys!.....We intend to change their minds!!!!

Lesson Review....The Scientific Calculator, Spanish, Trigonometry, Geometry, and Public Speaking.

2:45 PM: I picked up Jarrell from Banning High School and Joshua from Carnegie Middle School.

2:46 PM: Spanish lessons begin. Jarrell and I listened to our Spanish cassette (Spanish Course, Cassette # 1) and repeated each word that the commentator said. Our ride home was only 15 minutes and it was put to very good use. I only interrupted to hear what Joshua had to say about his 7th grade classes at Carnegie. He proudly took out two exam papers that had "20/20..."A" written across the top. I congratulated Joshua as I pulled into my driveway in Dominguez Hills.

3:30 PM. Tutoring officially begins. Jeremiah, James, Jarrell and Joshua sit and listen to my lecture on the use of the Scientific Calculator. I had peered at Joshua's Assignment Notebook and noticed a lot of mathematical formulas, geometric figures and Units Conversion's Tables on the front pages. That was right down my alley and that gave me more reason to discuss the "sine-cosine-tangent" functions on the calculator. That gave me more reason to discuss radian measurements and degree measurements. That gave me more reason to do the square root and cube root calculations. 

Out came the graph paper. Out came the Pythagorean Theorem. Out came the calculators that would solve all of the problems related to it. Out came the dry erase board and marker. Out came the drawings of circles and triangles with a hypotenuse, opposite side and adjacent side. Out came c^2 = a^2 + b^2. Out came 30, 45 and 60 degree right triangles and how to find the sine, cosine and tangent. Out came the arc-sine, arc-cosine and arc-tangent and how to find angles when a value is given. Out came the square root of 3 over 2. Out came the Scientific Calculators with students hitting keys with wide grins on their faces. Out came the knowledge that calculators are truly miracles of modern technology.

5:00 PM...Homework Time...Students who had homework proceeded to complete it. Those without homework had to suffer through another lecture. This time it was back to our Spanish lessons. James, Jarrell, James and I proceeded to speak to each other in the Spanish language. We are becoming good at it!

It was a spur-of-the-moment exercise. The students decided to do a bit of public speaking. I gave them 3 minutes each to tell about their day at school. They were graded by the other students: one negative and one positive comment about the presentation. Some students showed a bit of dismay about their presentations and asked to do it over again. I consented. It was in sharp contrast to a few months ago when it was very difficult to get some of the students to stand up and give a presentation. And now...they begged to stand up and talk!

7:00 PM. I cooked hamburgers on the electric grill while the students listened to our Spanish cassette again. We ate 2 hamburgers each, potato chips, cookies, drank soda and then went back into our Spanish conversation.

8:00PM. Tutoring is over and Michael is suspended for at least one month. He has to learn that we are a serious Organization and not inclined to be a disciplinary one. Any student that shows disciplinary problems will be dropped...pronto. Poor Michael begged to come back to the Tutoring Service, but he couldn't keep his mouth shut long enough to remain. He lasted one afternoon.

9:00 PM. Joshua's mom comes to pick him up and Tutoring is officially ended. Joshua had to work on the computer on "Math Blaster" until his mother arrived to pick him up.

___________________________________________________________

Lesson Plan.....September 14, 2000....more of the same.

Lesson Review...September 14, 2000: Students in attendance, James, Joshua, Jarrell, Michael. Michael pleaded to come back to the Tutoring Service, without his behavior problems. He was given another chance and he did all that was required of him on this tutoring afternoon!

It was a very high-level tutoring afternoon. We reviewed our previous Spanish words and took on 40 more. We learned the days  of the week, the months, how to count to 30, how to tell time, more colors, north, east, south, west, times of the day, foods and we conversed with each other in Spanish. 

We took to the dry erase board and reviewed right triangles again. I am certain that the students know all about Pythagoras and his Theorem. More importantly, I am sure that most of them know about how to find the square root of C^2, or 25, or 36. Most of them know how to find the sine, cosine and tangent of an angle on the calculator and most of them know how to find the "arc" values, too. Most of them know how to graph straight lines and to check them on our calculator. Some of them understand the "quadratic equation formula" that appears inside of Joshua's (11) school workbook. I really do not understand why it is there in the first place, but since it is, I have no choice but to teach the students how to solve those "two values of  X  problems". (AX^2 + BX + C= 0)

I was elated when each student calculated the opposite, hypotenuse and adjacent sides of the 30 degree angle in a right triangle. (1, 2 and the square root of 3.)

_____________________________________________________________

Lesson Plan ....September 17, 2000...Apple Valley...Here we come!

Apple Valley is approximately 100 miles from Dominguez Hills. That distance will not stop us from visiting Duane and Darlene Wilson's home that is located there. Duane and Darlene are Assistant Tutors of "A Free Tutoring Service" and have asked us to come and have dinner in the back yard and listen to a lecture on "Home Businesses". Darlene works out of her home and has a string of computers in a workroom. It should be very interesting and educational to see how this very smart young lady goes about her daily routine of training employees via the Internet...at home. It should also be very interesting to learn all about this beautiful high-desert community. The students will do a report on... "Apple Valley...A Wonderful Desert Community".

We will depart from 1902 Dominguez Street (New Philadelphia A.M.E.), Carson, at 12:30PM sharp. We will do an exercise on the computer as we travel to Apple Valley in  our van. We will return at 19009 Laurel Park Road (my home) between 8:00 PM and 8:30 PM. A minimum amount of money is required. However, we might visit the Mall in Victorville and the students may do a little shopping if they have the money for it.

Website was created by Cleophas Mike McAlpin, and it is maintained by Jarrell (16) and the students of  "A Free Tutoring Service: Preparing for the Future". Background music by....New Philadelphia A.M.E. Church...  www.nuphilly.org

  Reverend Doctor Sherman A. Gordon of New Philadelphia A.M.E.: A dynamic young Pastor