@lupyuen
<quote>The year was 1812, and mathematical tables were a thing.

What are mathematical tables, you ask? Imagine that you need to do some trigonometry. What's sin(79)?
</quote>

I grew up with such tables. sin(79) was simple, just look it up.

what is square root of 53? No such table, instead had to use the logarithmic tables and what used to be 6th (7th maybe) grade (12 years old) mathematics.