Conversation

In the first millennium CE, mathematicians performed the then-complex calculations needed to compute the date of Easter. Of course, with our modern digital calendars, this task is now performed automatically by computers; and the older calendrical algorithms are now mostly of historical interest only.

In the Age of Sail, mathematicians were tasked to perform the intricate spherical trigonometry calculations needed to create accurate navigational tables. Again, with modern technology such as GPS, such tasks have been fully automated, although spherical trigonometry classes are still offered at naval academies, and ships still carry printed navigational tables in case of emergency instrument failures.

During the Second World War, mathematicians, human computers, and early mechanical computers were enlisted to solve a variety of problems for military applications such as ballistics, cryptanalysis, and operations research. With the advent of scientific computing, the computational aspect of these tasks has been almost completely delegated to modern electronic computers, although human mathematicians and programmers are still required to direct these machines. (1/3)