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