[reidacdc]

This is very cool, as are a lot of older algorithms, and some newer ones. Probably mechanical computers had lots of under-the-hood optimizations that would be interesting to dig into.

It reminds me of e.g. the CORDIC algorithm, used to calculate trig functions (needed by rocket guidance systems) with a combination of fixed-point arithmetic and table look-up. Doubtless there are many others.

CORDIC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORDIC

[btilly]

One of my favorite optimizations was the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stern%E2%80%93Brocot_tree. One of the discoverers was a clockmaker who wanted to be able to produce simple gear ratios that would be very close to a precise real number.