Introduction

Abstract

Before the advent of the digital computer and the electronic calculator, an engineer used a manual spreadsheet called a tabular calculation for the presentation of alternate plans on feasibility studies, physical properties of chemical mixtures and similar problems. The tools were a slide rule, a sharp pencil and a large eraser. It often took hours or days to accomplish what is done electronically now in minutes and even seconds. However, the engineer and scientist still do not have access to many dedicated scientific electronic spreadsheets. They depend for the most part upon those developed for business and accounting purposes. For general applications there are some mathematical packages that will present the data in tabular form and some that will interact with specific spreadsheets.