The SPACE PATROL MATH & SCIENCE CONSOLE

The space shows of the early 1950's were a real boost for Western industry. They did this by promoting interest in the future and science as the dominant force of the future. This was done in two ways. The societies were shown as utopias with very imaginative machines, medicines and processes, produced by advanced scienc, as part of daily life and the specific job of "spacemen" involved knowledge of Astronomy. Also, Buzz Corry, Space Patrol Commander in Chief was one smart guy and could figure out things. Tom Corbett; Space Cadet attended an advanced academy where he took a college curriculum heavy on science and math.

It was not uncommon for 10-year-olds, especially boys, to be able to speak intelligently about rockets, the planets and real science in general, in a way that Star Trek and Star Wars devoteees do not, I was reading fifth-grade science in third grade. The A.C. Gilbert Company put out childrens' science tools, particularly the 2.5 inch 32x reflector "Moonscope" and a microscope that I got before I was 11, was terribly proud of and which served me well, into my high school years.

Well, the SPACE PATROL POWER CONSOLE honors that tradition by incorporationg the MATH & SCIENCE CONSOLE. This console provides the tools for math and science far in advance of anything short of pro stuff. How come? because it uses pro stuff. Beyond all of that, it's adapted to work in FireFox. While I made it as self-contained as I could, some of the tools "reach out and touch someone". Those somones are usually pro sites so youcan get all the goodies that the Math, Science and Engineering communities have to offer. You get:

In short, the stuff the Big Boys use so don't hesitate to put the pedal to the metal.

Beyond that, the space shows offered "preiums" and "licensed product"; playthings, clothes and other items affiliated with them and bearing the name and often logo of the program who did this. Space Patrol did this the best of all. Well, even half a century after the show has left the air, they are still doing it after a fashion with this console. Any 1953 Space Patroller would have loved this item. Such a deal! If you're interested, or have interests, in Math, Science or Engineering. the Space Patrol Math & Science Console is your unstoppable tool of choice; and what it doesn't provide you with, it gets you to.

This console is further divided into sections based on the calculator in use. The Main console does general work; conversions and table lookup, with strong emphasis on physical chemistry , chemistry and the use of constants. The triangle-circle-hyperbola handles the geometry and graphing. The RPN is the Math Monster. If you need to bail on the console, then we connect to MotionNET's heavy-duty calculator. We don't leave you hanging on a cliff. Our Resource page is chock-a-block full of things like glossaries and connections to the websites of top flight groups like the IEEE. We also include a Business and Finance section that is not a weakling.

THE SECTIONS

Each of the sections is built around one or more of the calculators and is a sub-console. Please note that we refer to them as Slide Rule calculators. These things became prominent int the middle 1970's and did slide rule functions so that is what they were called. Prior to that the slide rule was the favored tool of calculation for anyone doing advanced mathematical function. Because many of these persons were scientists and engineers, the calculators became known colloquially as scientific calculators. the true "scientific" unit did not exist until the companies started adding built-in subroutines that did specific scientific, statistical and engineering calculations. Our only Scientifically oriented calculator is the EniG that is Their regular one set up for chemistry.I chose it for that reason and then enhanced it further as well as made it the heart of the Main section.

USE OF THIS CONSOLE

Even before you activate this console you have, in the first part, six useful things: a good general purpose calculator and five usful functions: a set of 3 calculators that can be used at once. Fractions, two kind of percentaes, proportion and units conversion functions to do some of the more pesky commonly used computations. What you have here are 5-1/2 sections Operation is straightforward What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG). You navigate the console with the switches in the second row. The calculators and functions speak for themselves. The Resource page gets you links to useful, organizational or source sites.
  • The half-section is the screen with 3 small but sufficient calculators to do chain calculations with copy/past/re and cross-insert intermdiate results. And that's it. No secret passages or hidden tricks, just straignt up functionality, versatility and computing power. when we named this the "Math & Science Console" we were fooling around