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A comment on Smith Chart. Parent comment

Re:Smith Chart by jessaustin on Friday November 22, 2019 @04:28PM (#21610260)
Is this comparison based solely on the idea that both of these tools are outdated? If you have something deeper in mind, could you fill in some details of this metaphor? I haven't seen Smith charts before, but a cursory read of TFA doesn't really evoke punch cards.
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Re:Smith Chart by segfaultbuserr on Friday November 22, 2019 @05:00PM (#21610574)
Smith Chart is both a visualization tool (as a chart) and a calculation tool (as a nomogram), you can use a printed Smith Chart to do RF-related calculations (impedance matching, return loss, etc) with a ruler and compass on a graph paper, pretty much like using a slide rule to calculate logarithm and trigonometry. I think it's why the OP compared it to a punch card.

It's true that today it's rarely used as a calculation tool, but it's still useful as a visualization. I don't think it's obsolete like punch cards.

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