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When Slide Rules Ruled [pdf]
dartmouth.edu — Excellent '06 Scientific American paper on the instrument that helped design the modern world.
reflex768- 460 diggs
- digg it
- db0255, on 04/26/2008, -3/+4somebody taught me how to use a slide rule once. unfortunately for him it went in one ear and out the other...
- Melcorind, on 04/26/2008, -0/+1Groan....
- jackalsclaw, on 04/27/2008, -0/+1if you get logs then it should not be a problem to understand how to use them
- reflex768, on 04/26/2008, -1/+9Wow. Check out the prices for slide rules on: http://collectibles.search.ebay.com/slide-rule_Sci ...
- robocop1, on 04/26/2008, -0/+6Holy *****! i once saw an old man selling like 15 of these for a dollar each at a yard sale a few months ago.damn it i hate myself for not buying them off him!
- dbalaski, on 04/26/2008, -0/+6Wow --i am glad I kept several of them (Dad's, uncle's and mine ) ...
I never knew they were tis collectible - bf01, on 04/26/2008, -0/+2Rats. My Pickett Microline 120 is only going for $0.99. Guess I'll hang on to it.
- mstrebe, on 04/26/2008, -0/+2That's pretty much what they cost new, adjusted for inflation.
- dtele, on 04/27/2008, -0/+1Wow !!!
I can sell my two old rules and purchase the latest technology Mac and still have change to spare.
thats progress for you.
- dbalaski, on 04/26/2008, -0/+2Cool article --
I learned how to use one in HS by a teacher who gave us a choice to use a slide rule or nothing.
I choose learning to use the slide rule .. and I think i was able to learn more since I was able to visual things better using it. - kenvsryu, on 04/26/2008, -1/+8Digg needs a pdf section.
- glinsvad, on 04/26/2008, -0/+12Digg needs a digg-needs-a section
- GOVATENT, on 04/26/2008, -0/+3well played. i never read that one before
- glinsvad, on 04/26/2008, -0/+12Digg needs a digg-needs-a section
- p51d007, on 04/26/2008, -0/+3at the time I was at the point of needing a slide rule, calculators such as the TI-55 came around, so I went that direction. I remember going to an FCC test in the late 70's and they made you take out the battery before you could have the test, just to make sure you didn't have any formulas preprogrammed into it.
- spyd3rweb, on 04/26/2008, -3/+1Sounds like a bad joke my high school teacher told me years ago.
- tesuji05, on 04/26/2008, -0/+5For those that found that article interesting; you should see the author's talk he gave to TED:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/237- weizilla, on 04/26/2008, -0/+1holy *****. i remember reading his book, The Cuckoo's Egg, when I was a kid.
- blueface, on 04/26/2008, -2/+1Breitling watches have their slide rule integrated for use by pilots that know what they're doing...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Breitling-Navit ...- yogiincork, on 04/26/2008, -0/+2link's dead
- Cerebron, on 04/26/2008, -0/+0I always thought that would be cool when the teacher says 'no calculators allowed', But generally too expensive.
- yogiincork, on 04/26/2008, -0/+2link's dead
- scrumdiddly, on 04/26/2008, -2/+0Logarithms - those things I was supposed to learn about in school but couldn't because my teacher was negligent. What the hell is a slide rule?
- gernblansted, on 04/26/2008, -0/+2Years ago, even after the slide rule was replaced by calculators, my high school science teacher broke out the slide rules from storage and spent 1 day showing us what they could do. I thought my new TI calculator was cool, but that a construction of a few pieces of wood and plastic could replace much of it? I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it.
- atact88, on 04/26/2008, -0/+0I gotta dig up my dad's old slide rule....
- OneLess, on 04/26/2008, -0/+1Very good article, I actually still have the issue of SciAm with this in :) At the time, I printed out about 5 of the original PDF slide rule pages and distributed them amongst my geekiest of nephews.
- Tomchei, on 04/26/2008, -0/+1Hey, I have that very same HP-35 with the red LED display.
I also have the HP-65 with the magnetic strips that could store 100 steps. I actually wrote a game on that thing. - csapdani, on 04/26/2008, -0/+1http://pdfmenot.com/view/http://www.dartmouth.edu/ ...
- elementop, on 04/26/2008, -0/+2Actually, a lot of pilots (including me) still know how to use a slide rule. It's called an E-6B (see http://www.sportys.com/acb/showprod.cfm?&DID=19&CA ... for an example), and you can compute all kinds of things on it, including time/speed/distance problems, fuel burn, density altitude, Mach number (like that matters in my airplane, lol), crosswind components, etc. Last time I took a checkride for a new rating, you had to demonstrate to the examiner that you knew how to use one, or you didn't pass.
- Cerebron, on 04/26/2008, -0/+0Save up your money for one of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breitling
- linuxpenguin, on 04/26/2008, -0/+1I used to have one of these from my Grandpa. . . never figured out how you're supposed to use it though. Interesting to read how they used it - I never figured it out.
- hughv, on 04/27/2008, -0/+2I still have my K & E 4181-3 which I got in college in 1961.
I used it for years afterward for simple multiplication and division.
An elegant invention. - dtele, on 04/27/2008, -0/+1What !?! A computer that doesnt need a power supply or Windows/Linyx/MacOS etc etc etc ?
I actually learnt to use one of these in primary school before i was allowed an expensive 'electronic calculator'.
What the bet that the slide rule (if you can still get one) is a lot more expensive than a calculator now.
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