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WikiCards · Card list · Science cards · Difference engine
Uncommon card · Science
Difference engine, an Uncommon card
A difference engine is an automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions.
- Rarity
- Uncommon
- Domain
- Science
- ATK
- 73
- DEF
- 63
- Power
- 136
- Wikipedia reads a year
- 100,000
Power 136 (ATK + DEF): stronger than 70 % of WikiCards cards.
Difference engine quiz: 3 questions
Three questions on the Difference engine card, the way WikiCards duels ask them. Pick an answer, the facts are just below.
Find the missing word
It was ______ in the 1820s, and was created by Charles Babbage.
Answer
designed. It was designed in the 1820s, and was created by Charles Babbage. From the Difference engine article on Wikipedia.
Which of these cards hits hardest (highest ATK)?
Answer
Claude Lévi-Strauss. Claude Lévi-Strauss 81 · Difference engine 73 · Naomi Novik 70 · Chemical engineering 67 ATK in WikiCards.
In a duel, each round asks a question like these about the opposing card, with 15 seconds to answer.
The facts on the card
The card carries these facts from its Wikipedia article.
- It was designed in the 1820s, and was created by Charles Babbage.
- The name difference engine is derived from the method of finite differences, a way to interpolate or tabulate functions by using a small set of polynomial co-efficients.
- Some of the most common mathematical functions used in engineering, science and navigation are built from logarithmic and trigonometric functions, which can be approximated by polynomials, so a difference engine can compute many useful tables.
Why it is Uncommon
Rarity in WikiCards follows a year of Wikipedia page views: the most read articles become Epic and Legendary cards. The Difference engine article was read about 100,000 times in a year. ATK comes from the length of the article and DEF from its quality, so this card hits with 73 and blocks with 63: each hit it takes is cut by 25 %.
How to get Difference engine
Open packs. Each pack holds five cards drawn from real Wikipedia articles, the rarest last, and the fifth card is always Rare or better. The odds are shown in the game. A free pack arrives every hour and two can wait, and the Coins you win in duels buy more packs.
More Science cards
Cards close in power
The cards just above and just below Difference engine in the power ranking, all domains together.
- Naomi NovikUncommon · Arts · ATK 70 DEF 66
- Square root of 2Uncommon · Science · ATK 74 DEF 62
- Cowboy hatUncommon · Society · ATK 65 DEF 71
- Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopyUncommon · Science · ATK 74 DEF 62
- Jetour T2Uncommon · Society · ATK 67 DEF 69
- Nico HischierUncommon · Society · ATK 72 DEF 64
Card lists
- Wikipedia quizNew questions every day
- All cards from A to ZEvery card, by name
- Science cards
- Legendary cards
- Tier listS and A tiers by power (ATK + DEF)
Credits
Text : Wikipedia, Difference engine (revision), CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo : User:geni, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
