The History of Terrorism
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World War II field artillery
155 mm Gun M1 (Long Tom)
The 155-millimeter 'Long Tom' field cannon, one of the most popular big guns used during World War II, incorporates five hundred variables in its firing table."
"Air temperature, gunpowder temperature, elevation, humidity, wind speed, and direction, and even soil type-all are important environmental factors required in the complex calculations."
"Not surprisingly, these charts were treacherous to calculate. All the variables in hundreds of permutations had to be plugged in and worked out by hand."
"And there were surprises: the army discovered that tables calculated to work in Europe didn't work in Africa because the soil variables were different, though the guns were delivered, they were little more than dead weight until the firing data could...
...be recalculated from scratch."
Parents
"And there were surprises: the army discovered that tables calculated to work in Europe didn't work in Africa because the soil variables were different, though the guns were delivered, they were little more than dead weight until the firing data could...
Children
"Squads of clerks-usually women-worked around the clock using pen, paper, and mechanical adding aids to crunch the numbers."