How to find the area under a curve without calculus
- Ryan: guess how were taking the integral of these analog functions that come out of the gas chromatograph?
- Ryan: its one of those machines that scribbles a graph on a moving peice of paper, forget what that's called
- Ryan: but its how we measure the area under the graph that makes it seem really low tech for gas chromatography
- davidad: do you literally measure the area on the paper somehow?
- davidad: like by counting squares in the graph paper?
- Ryan: indirectly
- Ryan: but not literally
- Ryan: more precise than squares
- davidad: ah
- davidad: that's good at least
- Ryan: it's quite a clever idea for its simplicity
- Ryan: we carefully cut the graph out of the paper with scissors
- Ryan: and weigh it on an analytical balance
