What key mechanical innovation allowed the Stepped Reckoner to handle multiplication and division?
Answer
The Leibniz Wheel, or stepped drum.
The heart of the machine's novelty was the Leibniz Wheel, also called the stepped drum, which featured teeth of varying lengths corresponding to digits one through nine.
#Videos
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1672, demonstration video - YouTube
Related Questions
What was the primary achievement of the Stepped Reckoner regarding arithmetic operations?What key mechanical innovation allowed the Stepped Reckoner to handle multiplication and division?How was division performed mechanically on the Stepped Reckoner?When did Leibniz present his finished mechanical calculator to the French Academy of Sciences?What distinguished the Stepped Reckoner from the machine developed by Blaise Pascal?What was Leibniz's theoretical ambition related to the *Calculus Ratiocinator*?What characteristic defined the teeth on the specialized stepped drum mechanism?What fundamental challenge persisted in mechanical computation, illustrated by the Stepped Reckoner's operation?What philosophical drive informed Leibniz’s creation of the Stepped Reckoner hardware?What major engineering difficulty was inherent in managing the 'carry' operation on the Stepped Reckoner?