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When Slide Rules Were Like Cellphones (hackaday.com)

szczys writes: Slide Rules and Pocket Protectors are the go-to items when making fun of old-time geeks. Forget the pocket protectors. Slide Rules were the first personal computers and a status symbol akin to what cellphones are today. Of course the general public wasn't attached to them, but engineers were. Before electronic calculators came around, everyone who needed to do some serious math owned Slide Rules. Stunningly easy to use and extremely effective, they have tick-marks placed on a logarithmic scale which makes complex multiplication, division, powers, etc. into visual calculations instead of mental ones.

159 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. Still got mine. by ugliness · · Score: 2

    Didn't have calculators when I was finished high school (year 12).

    Still in it's plastic cover with the manual.

    Drag it out now and again just for a laugh.

    --
    "...but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology..." - FZ
    1. Re:Still got mine. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      Me too. Three in fact. Inherited them from my grandparents ... and I can actually use them -- to a small extent. Don't have any manuals though.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    2. Re:Still got mine. by ugliness · · Score: 1

      nice :)

      --
      "...but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology..." - FZ
    3. Re: Still got mine. by t1oracle · · Score: 2

      Year 12? And here I am thinking I'm old coming from the high school class of 2001...

    4. Re:Still got mine. by KGIII · · Score: 2

      You'll pry my slipstick from my cold, dead, hands!!!

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    5. Re: Still got mine. by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      If someone does manage to pry it from you before you assume room temperature, you can go to a much older personal calculator, one that is still in use today. Abacus FTW. Cheaper to make, too.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    6. Re: Still got mine. by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      Class of '77.

      Who let all you newbs in here?

      When I entered college, the status symbol was an HP-41 on the belt. I was poor and has an SR-56.

    7. Re:Still got mine. by sensei+moreh · · Score: 1

      I've still got the 20-scale plastic Pickett Microline 140 I I bought back in '68. Didn't get a calculator until my senior year in high school (a Texas Instruments SR-10). I picked up an interesting-looking Chinese slide rule from the government-run department store in Xian in 1991. It's got some unusual trig scales and a nice, hard baby blue plastic case.

      --
      Geology - it's not rocket science; it's rock science
    8. Re: Still got mine. by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      2001 was like yesterday, you're still a kid. Oh, and stay off my lawn, too.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    9. Re: Still got mine. by slashdot_commentator · · Score: 1

      Almost 7 digit Slashdot UID? Pfft. Talk about newb.

      (And the only reason why mine is so high was that I was spending years as an anonymous coward reading Slashdot before I bothered getting the account, back in the early 2000's.)

      --
      There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
    10. Re: Still got mine. by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I still have an abacus from my childhood. It's made out of some exotic woods (I'm pretty sure - they're not native to the States but I'm not certain what they are) and probably from where my father bought it - North Africa, he was stationed in Morocco. It's a pretty big one, it has ten rows. If you remind me, when I get home again (not sure when that will be), I'll take a picture of it. It's at least 60 years old now. It was probably the abacus that gave me the ability to actually grasp the idea around numbers, as an object, instead of just a concept.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    11. Re:Still got mine. by eric_harris_76 · · Score: 1

      Maybe you can find the manuals on the Internet.

      --
      There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
    12. Re: Still got mine. by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      I started reading Slashdot in 1999.

      It's really disappointing that they started displaying UIDs visibly on the top of posts. It wasn't like that until somebody set up a 'fake Bruce Perens' account with some sort of spelling hack I don't remember. For awhile there there was the necessity to determine who 'the real Bruce Perens' was because apparently he's so important. So they started displaying UID visibly, and it started to become a 'thing.' That might have been before you were around.

    13. Re: Still got mine. by slashdot_commentator · · Score: 1

      Nope. I was around then. Just didn't care.

      --
      There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
    14. Re:Still got mine. by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      Still got my Pickett Log-Log Decitrig. With leather case and belt clip.
      If you pull out the slide and flip it end-for-end you can "program" it for L-C Resonance calculations.

      Also still have my HP 35 "sliderule calculator" with field case. But no battery...

  2. hence the old joke... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    (Disclaimer: I used a slide rule in high school in the 1970's, and we actually had a section of a class in how to do so)

    Person A: "What's 2 times 2?"
    Person B: "Let me check my slide rule, one sec... OK, looks like around 3.96."

    1. Re:hence the old joke... by hajile · · Score: 5, Insightful

      New joke

      Person A: "What's 0.1 + 0.2?"
      Person B: "Let me check my computer, one sec... OK, looks like around 0.30000000000000004."

    2. Re:hence the old joke... by EETech1 · · Score: 2

      Welcome to the secret robot internet!

    3. Re:hence the old joke... by ClickOnThis · · Score: 3, Insightful

      10.0 times 0.1 is hardly ever 1.0.
      -- Kernighan and Plauger, The Elements of Programming Style

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    4. Re:hence the old joke... by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      I know it's a joke, but I actually read the article and used the online web simulator to work though the example problem that the article suggested. It was a very simple problem... What is 2 times 3. Obviously, any grade schooler can tell you the answer is 6, but using the slide rule as accurately as possible, I came up with 5.5. If that's an example of the accuracy of a slide rule, then good riddance!

    5. Re:hence the old joke... by ClickOnThis · · Score: 3, Informative

      I know it's a joke, but I actually read the article and used the online web simulator to work though the example problem that the article suggested. It was a very simple problem... What is 2 times 3. Obviously, any grade schooler can tell you the answer is 6, but using the slide rule as accurately as possible, I came up with 5.5. If that's an example of the accuracy of a slide rule, then good riddance!

      I wouldn't say that's an example of the accuracy of a slide rule. Rather, I'd say it's an example of your lack of skill with one.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    6. Re:hence the old joke... by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      I actually bought a slide rule last week (coincidence seeing this here) after hearing about them my whole life. I think I taught myself how to use it OK, I'm still practicing, but how do you get that level of precision? I'm lucky if I get within 5, eg 47*23=~1080. I know it has to end in '1', so I guess 1081. Is that how it's supposed to work?

    7. Re:hence the old joke... by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      I'd rather have an HP-41C. Even without the card reader.

      But I would settle for my Pickett rule. Yellow aluminum, leather case, magnificent to me in high school. Dropped it once, not a bit of alignment problems. At the time the attraction was it was the longer version of the one sent up on Apollo missions, or something like that.

      And multiplying 3 x 2 gave the answer 6, with sufficient precision to be useful. Only an idiot would multiply two whole integers and not discard the apparent decimals... Multiplying larger integers wasn't so hard. Square roots were really useful.

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    8. Re:hence the old joke... by mark_reh · · Score: 1

      1 part in 1000 is 0.1%- good enough for most things you need to calculate. It got people to the moon and back. If your engineering depends on some digit 13 places past the decimal place, your engineering sucks.

    9. Re:hence the old joke... by goombah99 · · Score: 1

      Expensive slide rules sometimes get to 4 digit logs with very fine rulling and very long slide bars. But some manage to get extra precision using a vernier scale. You should see if yours has a vernier on it, most do. It's a clever trick.

      --
      Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    10. Re:hence the old joke... by Diddlbiker · · Score: 1

      That's the advantage of the HP-15C. You don't have to hope it works. You know it works.

    11. Re:hence the old joke... by Kinematics · · Score: 2

      The first three numbers on the bottom of the slide are 9, 1, and 1. The second one is really 1.1 (as you can guess from the progression up to another 9, and then 2), and if you line that one up you end up with 5.5, because the real "1" is down around 1.81 (so 3*1.81=5.43). You need to line the first 1 up with the 2. Then everything lines up perfectly.

      I had basically the same confusion the first time I tried. After figuring out which was correct, it was neat to see any multiple (eg: 1.5, 2, 3, etc) all giving perfect answers. No clue how to use the rest of it, though.

    12. Re:hence the old joke... by KGIII · · Score: 1

      You bought a cheap and small one.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    13. Re:hence the old joke... by chipschap · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This reminds me of something said by a very wise Professor I had in grad school. I "go back a ways" and I was in grad school just as electronic hand held calculators were beginning to appear, and slide rules were in their last days.

      The Prof declared that the new calculators were an efficient way to calculate the wrong answer to a high degree of precision.

      In other words, whether calculator, slide rule, computer, or whatever device --- none of them substitute for knowledge and judgment.

    14. Re:hence the old joke... by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't say that's an example of the accuracy of a slide rule. Rather, I'd say it's an example of your lack of skill with one.

      Ditto. I gave it a quick try, and was pixel-perfect.

      Just following the instructions on the website was all I needed to get the right answer. I can't imagine how bad you have to be to not get the right answer...

    15. Re:hence the old joke... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Good enough for engineering, just multiply it with 10 and send it over to manufacturing.
      It's not like they are going to produce the parts with the specified tolerance anyway.

    16. Re:hence the old joke... by someoneOtherThanMe · · Score: 1

      I actually bought a slide rule last week

      But there's an app for that.
      https://play.google.com/store/...

    17. Re:hence the old joke... by sjames · · Score: 1

      User error, you mistook the tenths marks for the ones, so you (accidentally) calculated 1.2*1.3 and got 1.56.

    18. Re:hence the old joke... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Why aren't you using the A and B scales?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    19. Re:hence the old joke... by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 1

      Hint: You're supposed to put the Big 1 over the Big 2 and read the number under the Big 3.

      I know what you did since I reproduced your results. You put the Big 1 over the little 2 and read the number under the little 3 which was the little 5.5 (the real value of that position is 1.55)(.

      To help you with the exercise, when you move the cursor you'll see the "digital" readout on the two rows below the ruler. Reading the D(x) value, place the cursor where it reads 2 or very near 2. Then slide the rule so C(x') reads 1 or very near 1. Now you can find the Big 3 (you'll see the pi symbol next to it; the little 3 doesn't have that symbol nearby), underneath it you'll see the 6.

      Once you have yourself calibrated to the machine, it should fall into place.

    20. Re:hence the old joke... by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      Slide rules are good for major, fast calculations; but the older tool, the abacus, is superior. Once you've learned it, you start computing simple arithmetic rapidly in your head as reflex.

      The abacus is a digital device of infinite precision (you can make longer ones, or stick them side by side); the slide rule is an analog circuit.

    21. Re:hence the old joke... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Yep, that's how it works. Getting more than three significant digits isn't possible with a slide rule. If you needed more precision than that, you got out the logarithm tables.

    22. Re:hence the old joke... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Agreed. Which is why you should always know what the calculator is doing, but allow it to do it quickly. It's not a substitute for your knowledge, it's a substitute for your time.

      In practice, if something looks like it has a precision error, it probably does. Round it off before giving your answer.

    23. Re:hence the old joke... by cellocgw · · Score: 1

      But does an abacus have a trig scale? A log-log scale?

      Not all of us want to calculate the first 5 terms of a Taylor series every time we want something nonlinear.

      --
      https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
    24. Re:hence the old joke... by slashdot_commentator · · Score: 1

      Yeah, say that when an EMP hits.

      --
      There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
    25. Re:hence the old joke... by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      If you're using the taylor series so much, why not memorize it? To multiply on an abacus, you memorize the multiplication table and do rapid addition; addition and subtraction use a memorized set of complements on 5 {(1,4),(2,3)} and 10 {(1,9),(2,8),(3,7),(4,6)}. That's why learning soroban math results in the ability to perform rapid mental computation without tools: the soroban itself eventually becomes obsolete because you can do it in your head faster.

      Someone was trying to multiply 3 x 2 and got 5.5. Why would you do this on a slide rule? For that matter, why would you multiply 37.283 x 14.97 x sqrt(137) by slide rule when abacus or the derived mental mathematics perform such computations more quickly and to greater precision?

    26. Re:hence the old joke... by sconeu · · Score: 1

      Only problem I ever had with my Log Log double K was when I droppped it and the glass guide broke. Glued the guide back together and it was fine.

      Still have it around somewhere.... Now I have to go look for it tonight when I get home.

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    27. Re:hence the old joke... by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      I tried the sims at both of your links. They both worked perfectly for me, with the C and D scales.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    28. Re:hence the old joke... by lgw · · Score: 1

      You don't. With skill you get 3 sig figs. That's all you need for much of engineering. You don't use sliderules for accounting.

      I used a slide rule in my high school physics class, where we were forbidden to give any anwer to more than 2 significant digits, and forbidden from using calculators. The teacher was on a tear about how physics is not about the adding-up, but about understanding what the formulas meant. I liked that class.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  3. This is all well and good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    But how can we use slide rules to encourage women and minorities to join STEM fields?

    1. Re:This is all well and good by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Make them in pink with pictures of Violetta.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  4. What about Log tables by rossdee · · Score: 1

    I was in high school in the early 70's

    We spent way more time using 4 digit log (and trig) tables than slide rules

    1. Re:What about Log tables by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      I finished highschool in the mid-90's and we also used 4 digit log and trig tables more than anything, it was the following year I think '95 or '96 that they started allowing students to use calculators as long as they had no graphing function, but you couldn't use them in exams. I think it was in my sisters last year in highschool around 2000ish that they allowed graphing calculators, and you could use them in exams.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    2. Re:What about Log tables by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      it was the following year I think '95 or '96 that they started allowing students to use calculators as long as they had no graphing function,

      I used a calculator in my "A" level maths exam (high school) in 1975. I Think that it was an TI SR-50. It made some of the questions remarkably easy -- I think that the people who wrote the exam paper did not realize that calculators could "do" logs.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    3. Re:What about Log tables by Snotnose · · Score: 1

      I graduated high school in 76, used my dad's hand me down slide rule. It was made out of metal, wish I'd kept it. When I started college in the early 80s I got a TI-58 for about $150, that lasted me 10 years before the battery gave out and it wouldn't hold a charge. By then I had a calculator on my computer.

    4. Re:What about Log tables by by+(1706743) · · Score: 1

      Since starting grad school, I've had to work with decibels a bit. I've really found that thinking in dB/log10 can be extremely useful, especially for back-of-the-envelope sort of calculations. And I'm absolutely terrible at mental arithmetic.

      Though I guess mostly I just memorize that 3dB (10^0.3) is ~2, 5 is ~pi and 10 is 10. One rarely needs to know the mantissa better than that ;)

    5. Re:What about Log tables by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      I used a calculator in my "A" level maths exam (high school) in 1975. I Think that it was an TI SR-50. It made some of the questions remarkably easy -- I think that the people who wrote the exam paper did not realize that calculators could "do" logs.

      Gotta chuckle at that, my dad was in university then. Can't remember if he was at UCR or KSU in '75 but they didn't allow calculators then but they did allow slide rules.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    6. Re:What about Log tables by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      it was the following year I think '95 or '96 that they started allowing students to use calculators as long as they had no graphing function

      I remember having a TI 30 series (early LCD model) in 80/81....in 8th grade with the famous Great International Math on Keys book. It eventually died and was replaced with a Sharp EL515S in high school. I think I still have that one around somewhere.

      Calculators were allowed in class, sometimes for tests/quizzes. Usually allowed for Finals, but you had to show the work so they were mostly used for double checking.

  5. Cell phones today are a status symbol? by mark-t · · Score: 2

    Of what? Seriously... As ubiquitous as they are, they are about as much of a status symbol as shoes.

    1. Re:Cell phones today are a status symbol? by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Evidently I made a bad analogy.... My point is that cell phones are so common that the only status I can imagine they might represent is that the user probably isn't entirely technophobic,

    2. Re:Cell phones today are a status symbol? by sunderland56 · · Score: 1

      The queue outside the Apple store isn't all people who don't own a cell phone; it's people who wouldn't be caught dead using last year's phone.

    3. Re:Cell phones today are a status symbol? by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      I designed computer chips, then later on controllers for spacecraft and don't own a cellphone. I'm fairly normal (I think, but don't we all). I had one, but never used it and it got lost.

    4. Re:Cell phones today are a status symbol? by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      Yup. I got my first cell phone in 1995 when they were just about becoming mainstream, after a few years of association with rich suits.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  6. 50 Shades of Slide Rule by smittyoneeach · · Score: 3, Funny

    Use it as a paddle?

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    1. Re:50 Shades of Slide Rule by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      Use it as a paddle?

      Sure, as long as you're on the receiving end first. :-P

      'scuse me, your mom and I are busy.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    2. Re:50 Shades of Slide Rule by Required+Snark · · Score: 1

      Use a slide rule (or a calculator) the wrong way and you'll still be up shit creek without a paddle.

      --
      Why is Snark Required?
  7. Rocket scientist gave bad advice ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    An uncle was an honest-to-god rocket scientist. Things he built are sitting on the moon right now. When I was in elementary school he gave me a slide rule and told me I needed to learn how to use it. Pretty bad advice. :-) Within a couple of years, and before math classes could have used a slide rule, inexpensive 4 function electronic calculators arrived at the local department store. And each year's new offerings were much more capable.

    Decades later while cleaning up I found it and brought it to work to show my fellow geeks, software developers. The CEO was passing by my office and noticed the crowd, poked his head in to see what was going on. He ended up staying about 15 minutes alternating between the manual and slide rule to figure out how to do different calculations.

    Everyone was just so impressed with what a few sticks with tick marks painted on them could do. Hell, its how we built the machines that got us to the moon.

    1. Re:Rocket scientist gave bad advice ... by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      An uncle was an honest-to-god rocket scientist. Things he built are sitting on the moon right now. When I was in elementary school he gave me a slide rule and told me I needed to learn how to use it. Pretty bad advice. :-) Within a couple of years, and before math classes could have used a slide rule, inexpensive 4 function electronic calculators arrived at the local department store. And each year's new offerings were much more capable.

      I wouldn't say it was bad advice. Learning how to use a slide rule helps you learn how logarithms work. You have a tangible visual representation of them right in your hands. Of course, you wouldn't keep using them for extensive calculation once something better comes along. But there's still something to be learned from slide rules, even if you don't keep using them. Just like there's something to be gained from learning arithmetic even though calculators can do it for us.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    2. Re:Rocket scientist gave bad advice ... by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      Better than that, it gives you an intuitive feel for numbers as well as having to actually think about what the answer should be, eg, any number multilied by an even number will be even.

    3. Re:Rocket scientist gave bad advice ... by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 2

      An uncle was an honest-to-god rocket scientist. Things he built are sitting on the moon right now. When I was in elementary school he gave me a slide rule and told me I needed to learn how to use it. Pretty bad advice. :-) Within a couple of years, and before math classes could have used a slide rule, inexpensive 4 function electronic calculators arrived at the local department store. And each year's new offerings were much more capable.

      This reminds me of my undergrad days. I am much younger than the slide-rule generation, but I had a physics professor (astrophysicist, so almost a rocket scientist) who grew up at the end of the slide-rule generation. Every week he'd have an extra "help session" during office hours. I didn't need the extra help, but I went anyway just to see the guy work -- it was a joy to see all the different ways he'd find solutions to problems. (And he always brought cookies.)

      Anyhow, what always amazed me was his mental math capabilities. We'd get to the end of a problem and have this big expression that would require 10 steps to calculate, and he'd usually be able to get 2 significant figures for the answer in his head by the time one of us could punch in the numbers on our calculator.

      One day he got talking about slide rules and how they worked; the next session he brought his, and he showed us how to use it. (Now he could get 3 sig figs in the same time it took us to do calculations on a calculator.)

      What he explained is that the slide rule really helped his mental math capabilities, too. Having a set of visual scales that show how various functions line up just automatically gave you a sense of how things worked proportionally. On an electronic calculator, you just type in "Sine" or "Tangent" or "cube root" or "Log" or whatever, and it seemingly spits out a random number. Everything on a slide rule scale is spaced out it relationship to the other scales. After you do thousands of calculations with the slide rule, you can begin to have a sense of roughly what the root of X or log of X or cos of X would be, because you could visualize roughly where it was on the scales.

      The other thing he emphasized is that with a slide rule you get a sense of magnitude, as well as not overestimating significant figures. With a calculator, if you accidentally typed in "362000000" in step 3 instead of "36200000," your answer would be off by an order of magnitude and it would be hard to spot the error. With a slide rule, all you'd see was "3.62" and the rest of the number was something you just needed to keep track of in terms of magnitude. It forced you to notice if your answer seemed off by a big factor.

      But it also caused to be conscious of how accurate your answer was. Most of our physics problems only had 2 or 3 sig figs (as in sufficient for most real-world situations), but you'd get students saying an answer was "36877204846 Joules" or whatever, even if everything after the first 3 digits was meaningless.

      People make jokes about slide rules where 2x2 = 3.96 or whatever. (Actually, you really couldn't make that error with a slide rule unless you were incompetent or the rule was poorly made.) But we could also make fun of people for taking a pocket calculator and coming up with a 10-digit meaningless answer from a few numbers with only 2 sig figs.

      I just always think back to that astrophysicist, who could get 2 sig figs in his head through estimation and techniques absorbed from a slide rule... by the time we'd be able to spit out of 10-digit meaningless answer from the calculator, he could usually estimate the 3rd digit... and that was actually meaningful. Back in the day, if you needed more precision than 3 digits, you DECIDED you needed it and got out the book of tables which could take you to 4 or 5 digits (sometimes more). (I also own one of those -- lots of fun with not only log tables, but tables for all sorts of functions.)

    4. Re:Rocket scientist gave bad advice ... by lgw · · Score: 1

      Playing with sliderules gave me enough in the way of memorized log tables that I can estimate complicated exponentiation in situations where "rule of 72" doesn't work, e.g., taking the 8th root of some arbitrary number. I've found that handy on more than one occasion.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  8. We were the cusp generation by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It was in the late 1970s calculators made it big into top engineering schools in India, till then it was all slide rules. So my class was one of the early users of calculators. Most of our professors were from slide rule era. One prof in particular, Electrical Engineering 1, a 300 level course, used to bemoan the loss of slide rule.

    First some backgroung: Slide rules only give the characteristic of the answer not the mantissa. It is a fancy way of saying, it does not tell you where to place the decimal point. Thus often people fly through the slide rule all the way, without doing the decimal points for intermediate answers. Once you have the final answer, you eyeball the number, see which decimal point would be reasonable and jot it down. Saving valuable time not doing decimal work, during examn time.

    This was the point that prof made: He would set up the problems in such way the answer would be off by a factor of 10 on purpose. A 230 volt, 10 cm dia motor would come in at 75 watts. But people who don't do decimals would write down 750 watts because, that is the reasonable answer for such a machine. Thus he would know which students have a feel for the numbers and answers and who blindly follow the procedures and write down whatever answer comes out of the formula. His complaint was that he lost a valuable filtering tool to judge which students are worthy of being considered for RAships.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:We were the cusp generation by guantamanera · · Score: 1

      Slides rules can tell you the placement of the decimal point depending if you pushed it to the left or the right. If you were multiplying and if you push the slide to the left then the placement of the decimal is the sum of the number ofdigits to the left of the decimal point of the multiplying numbers If the slide is pushing to the right, then the placement of the decimal is the sum of the number of digits minus 1. 1.23 this number has 1 digit. 200.0 is 3 digits. There are a bunch of other rules but I don't remember. You can still buy New old stock slide rules. I recently bought some directly faber-castell.

    2. Re:We were the cusp generation by hankwang · · Score: 1

      "Thus he would know which students have a feel for the numbers and answers and who blindly follow the procedures" Eehm, so which students did he consider good? The ones with the mathematically correct answer, or the realistic answer?

    3. Re:We were the cusp generation by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1

      He wanted students who would balk at writing down 75 watts when they "know" such a machine should be at 750 watts.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    4. Re:We were the cusp generation by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1

      That is for one calculation. Most of the time we do a series of mulitplications, divisions and square roots. Thus keeping track of the decimal point is a chore we can dispense with. At the end the answer is 734 it could be 0.00734 or 0.0734 or 0.734 or 7.34 or 73.4 o 734 or ever 7340. Where the decimal point goes after a long series of computation, is done by knowing which answer feels right. This is where you can tell the students who connect their knowledge from the books with real life machines they see around them.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  9. Jeppesen by Dantoo · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Jeppesen CR-3 Flight Computer is a circular slide rule that is still in use today. The circular slide rule has long been a tool of pilots, air traffic controllers and even bookmakers! It's not just science types that use slide rules.

    1. Re:Jeppesen by PPH · · Score: 2

      Also known among pilots as prayer wheels.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    2. Re:Jeppesen by slimjim8094 · · Score: 1

      A better known example is the E6B. Even used on screen (for its intended purpose!) by Mr. Spock in more than one original series Star Trek episode.

      --
      I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
    3. Re:Jeppesen by bkmoore · · Score: 1

      Yes, I used one way back when learning how to aviate and navigate in flight school in the Navy. Back then, digital Flight Management Systems (FMS) were something found only in military fleet aircraft and big airliners. Fast forward to today, even light aircraft are getting digital FMS- and GPS that are far better than the INS and Mission Computers I used in my fleet aircraft. Even gliders are getting advanced digital FMS systems that show the pilot where he is and how far he can glide without lift. I'm not a flight instructor, but I can imagine that the old Jeppesen circular flight computer will soon be a novelty that old-timers like to reminisce about while they are swearing about the young'uns over reliance on GPS.

    4. Re:Jeppesen by bkmoore · · Score: 1

      A better known example is the E6B....

      The pilot slang term for the E6B was "Wiz Wheel".

  10. Asimov taught me by willoughby · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I stole a copy of "Why a Slide Rule Works" from the high school library and was way ahead of my math class the following year on logarithms & exponents. Asimov was a pretty good teacher.

    I still have a Post VersaTrig around here somewhere...

    1. Re:Asimov taught me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If you really stole it, then you're fucking asshole and a pathetic loser.

  11. Yes, and no. They were nice. Let's not exaggerate. by dpbsmith · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are many examples of fine old technology that can be admired for the ingenuity that went into devising non-digital solutions, and that depended on being precisely made.

    Slide rules were nice. They were a working tool for just about a century, very roughly 1870 to 1970. There are always some virtues to old technology that are lost when it's supplanted by new--the discipline of keeping the characteristic in your head and never losing track of the order of magnitude, the freedom from the illusion of precision.

    They were only mildly status symbols, at least at MIT during the 1960s. There was a certain amount of discussion of the comparative merits of Keuffel & Esser (wood) versus Pickett & Eckel (aluminum), whether it was better to fold the scales at pi or at the square root of ten, and so forth. Plenty of people got by with cheap slide rules. I never heard of any cases of slide rules being stolen.

    Keeping them properly lubricated, keeping the scales aligned, keep everything tensioned just right so that the slide and the cursor would move easily when you slide them and then stay put when you stopped pushing was a bear. More than once, people were embarrassed when the slide would actually slip out of the slide rule and clatter on the floor.

    When I saw my first HP-35 pocket calculator, $295 IIRC, I said "There, at least, is something that I'd accept in place of a slide rule--if you promised me it would last for decades and never break.

    Yes, I feel some nostalgia for slide rules--but let's not exaggerate.

    Oh, by the way--that "2 x 2 is 3.96" joke above is wrong. On an exact answer like that, on a well-made slide rule if you put the index of the C scale over 2 on the D scale--and you can get it so that it looks perfect, and the eye has darn good vernier acuity--the 2 on the C scale will be perfectly aligned with the 4 on the D scale. You would read it as "4." You couldn't possibly read it as 3.96, 3.96 is two full scale divisions away from 4.

    The problem comes when the answer lies between two scale divisions. For example, 3.98 and 4.00 are two adjacent marks. You would be hard-pressed to tell whether an answer were, say, 3.99 or 3.993.

  12. Once saw ... by quax · · Score: 1

    .... Werner von Braun's slide ruler in a display case. It was exactly the same one that my grandfather used to own, and that I got to play with when I was a little boy.

    1. Re:Once saw ... by quax · · Score: 1

      If you're not funny, try to at least get it right. That would obviously be a linear scale.

  13. Was using one in the late 90's ... by MacTO · · Score: 1

    The use of calculators were strictly forbidden in my physics courses during the late 1990's, so I asked my instructors if I could use a slide rule during exams. They said yes, so I did. It was a lot of fun to whip out that slide rule on an otherwise stressful day.

    1. Re:Was using one in the late 90's ... by lgw · · Score: 1

      Hah, same experience here. My teacher was amazed I had one, and delighted to let me use it, because it kept you focused on hte problem, not the calculation.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  14. Still have one. by sk999 · · Score: 1

    The cheapo models were made of plastic, but the debate at the time was whether the best models were of bamboo or magnesium construction. Mine is made of bamboo. There was also an elitism factor - how many scales does your slide rule have? Whether you used them or not was irrelevant.

    The one thing slide rules do not do naturally is plain old addition and subtraction. There are multiple hacks (e.g., antilogs) and it was a competitive challenge to find the "best" way. Seem to recall that my method used the S and T scales.

  15. An excellent gadget by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1
    I stunk at any kinf of math before seeing a lside rule, and the mathemechanical relations between numbers. Plus you had to learn notation. I have to chuckle when a calculator person gives a precise answer to 4 significant digits what is off by a shitload because they don't have a clue about a ballpark figure answer. One time a fairly simple derive teh height of the flagpole in front of the campus main building without directly measuring it, came back with answers like 2.5 feet, and 2500 feet.

    Yeah, slide rules are a complete anachronism, but not without worth. I still have one in the garage. The batteries in them seem to last forever as well!

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    1. Re:An excellent gadget by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      I stunk at any kinf of math before seeing a lside rule,

      And it would appear that I still stink at spelling.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  16. A funny story about a slide rule (IBM manager) by rlh100 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My father, Jack Harker, was a very senior manager at IBM. He was Director of the San Jose [IBM] Labs in the 70's and 80's. He was also one of the quiet giants of the disk drive industry convincing IBM upper management to develop thin film disk heads and the original Winchester technology.

    Jack loved to tell how in high level presentations when lots of figures and projections were being put up on the screen and the numbers didn't seem right, he would reach over and pull out his old 16" ivory K&E slide rule from his college days. The younger managers and engineers who had not seen him do this before would be flabbergasted, quite often offering to get him a calculator. He did this for two reasons. The first was to flummox the presenters and push them out of their comfort zone. The second was that he found a slide rule with its logarithmic scales was very useful for visually looking at growth projections. A quick look to see if the numbers actually made sense. Knowing my dad, I think the first reason was why he kept doing it. He enjoyed the looks of disbelief he got. Even more so after he quickly verified the numbers.

    I sure do miss him.

    1. Re:A funny story about a slide rule (IBM manager) by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      16" woof.

      Ivory? No, more likely celluloid over wood, older ones mahogany, newer ones bamboo.

      Ivory rulers were common apparently in the early part of the 1900s.

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    2. Re:A funny story about a slide rule (IBM manager) by goombah99 · · Score: 1

      Nifty! I worked at San Jose RL in the 80s and also Yorktown with the Fellow who invented the permalloy readhead.

      --
      Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    3. Re:A funny story about a slide rule (IBM manager) by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      I've had the same reaction just from doing long division on a whiteboard :)

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    4. Re:A funny story about a slide rule (IBM manager) by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      It may have been Ivorite--a plastic K&E made of a lot of their slide rules out of. Just about all K&E slide rules that weren't wood were Ivorite.

  17. I still carry a slide rule by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 1

    It's on my Citizen Skyhawk:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    Never had to use it but I can.

    1. Re:I still carry a slide rule by slashdot_commentator · · Score: 1

      Does Citizen or some other watchmaker produce a watch with similar to the Skyhawk that is either mechanical, or does not depend on radio synchronization?

      --
      There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
  18. Re:Yes, and no. They were nice. Let's not exaggera by Arnold+Reinhold · · Score: 1

    I agree with most of that, but I never had much problem keeping my slide rules lubricated, aligned, and tensioned. Slide rule maintenance was a lot less hassle than keeping a cell phone charged and the software updated. I used a slide rule through college and into my first job, but jumped at buying a TI SR-50 scientific calculator when they first came out in 1973, also paying about $300. But the tactile feel for calculations that the slide rule provided has never left me. I still own mine and have a slide rule app on my iPhone, just for fun. If you've never used one, get one on eBay and give it a try.

  19. The elegant simplicity of slide rules by steveha · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What I find interesting is that it took a tremendously more advanced technology to render slide rules obsolete.

    To make a slide rule, you need to figure out logarithms, then make exact marks on wood or something.

    To make a modern calculator, you need to invent the microchip! You also need to invent a suitable display technology: light-emitting diodes or liquid crystal displays. We literally put a man on the moon before anyone was able to make a pocket calculator.

    I love reading old science fiction stories set in the far future, where in the year 3423 or whatever people are still using slide rules. I imagine in the year 3423 people will still be using chairs, and probably spoons won't be too different... and back when those old stories were being written, slide rules seemed like that kind of basic item that wouldn't be going away.

    P.S. Before the "pocket" calculator was invented, there were electronic desk calculators using Nixie tubes! Watch this video and think of how much labor it would be to assemble one of these. The soldering work alone guarantees that a typical college student could never afford one of these, but I'm sure NASA had calculators like this for engineers to use.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mig3TeKh0aU

    --
    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
    1. Re:The elegant simplicity of slide rules by PPH · · Score: 1

      Nixie tubes. Meh.

      How about an HP 9100? Programmable, scientific functions, RPN. And no integrated circuits (all discrete component logic).

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    2. Re:The elegant simplicity of slide rules by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      My guess is that it's a slide rule in postscript. Too bad Slashdot messed up the formatting.

    3. Re:The elegant simplicity of slide rules by Required+Snark · · Score: 1

      The first portable electronic calculator I saw in the early 70's had a vacuum florescent display with one tube per digit. It was not segments, but made like a Nixie tube. It was no where near pocket sized. It had the same volume as a brick, but was more short and wide. You could fix it to your belt, and it would have never fit in a shit pocket. I vaguely remember that it would run for a couple of hours without charging.

      --
      Why is Snark Required?
    4. Re:The elegant simplicity of slide rules by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      Ramble time

      I did have an old mechanical adding machine made by the same company as the one in your video. It was one of the many pieces of obsolete junk my dad had. Could add, subtract, multiply, and apparently divide. Not quite sure how division worked. I think multiplication needed to be done 1 digit at a time (and multiple turns of the handle per digit) so a slide rule is obviously faster.

      The mechanical device is more useful for accounts. A slide rule is no good if numbers need to be exact. They're great for engineers because the slide rule just needs to have the same precision as the hardware.

      The same company later made motorised versions. But the main advantages a slide rule has are cheapness, and portability.

    5. Re:The elegant simplicity of slide rules by slashdot_commentator · · Score: 1

      Imagine having the eidetic memory required to remember them in your head, and then actually having to depend your life on it.

      Its kinda sad, all this pulp sci-fi that's going to be lost to future generations.

      --
      There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
    6. Re:The elegant simplicity of slide rules by steveha · · Score: 1

      You need to remember that at the time Heinlein wrote that, computers did exist, but not general-purpose stored-program computers. Back then, computers were special-built things that had one purpose, like fire-control computers in the Navy; you couldn't make a fire-control computer do something else by swapping out a program.

      All that said, you aren't wrong. Starman Jones is actually a bit clumsy; the computer works the way it's shown in the book because it has to work that way for the story to play out as Heinlein wanted it to. The idea of humans using pencil and paper to quickly compute the numbers to feed into the computer is silly; at a minimum there should have been another special-purpose computer device there to help them with the figuring.

      P.S. I also enjoyed Beyond This Horizon where a computer expert in the far future wishes he could build a computer with 4-dimensional cams, since the three-dimensional ones weren't complex enough for the calculations he wanted to perform; and in Methuselah's Children (set in the 22nd Century) the protagonists steal a spaceship that had "one of the new computers with no moving parts".

      --
      lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
    7. Re:The elegant simplicity of slide rules by Agripa · · Score: 1

      I love reading old science fiction stories set in the far future, where in the year 3423 or whatever people are still using slide rules. I imagine in the year 3423 people will still be using chairs, and probably spoons won't be too different... and back when those old stories were being written, slide rules seemed like that kind of basic item that wouldn't be going away.

      I do not remember which old science fiction book it was but the picture on the cover showed a space pirate climbing up the side of the ship with a slide rule held between his teeth.

    8. Re:The elegant simplicity of slide rules by meburke · · Score: 1

      I have two slide rules which I still use. The skill I use the most is estimating calculations for reasonableness. I don't think they teach that in school anymore.

      In 1968, after I came back from Vietnam, I started selling the first "truly programmable" desktop calculator. It was one of those "Nixie tube" machines you were talking about, and it was made by (Wait for it.....) COMMODORE! My competition was Friden and Marchant. The Friden machine weighed almost 40 lbs and could memorize 45 steps. Our little magnetic strips could only record 30 instructions, but we could do loops and recursion. The Marchant was a two-part unit with a 30lb desktop unit connected by a big cable to a desk-side unit with about 30 lbs of magnetic core memory.

      I remember my first big sale: Bell Telephone in Minneapolis. My little 30-lb Commodore fit in my briefcase. I put it on the buyer's desk and said, "Listen." He said, "I don't hear anything." I said, "Right." then I opened the door to his office, which opened onto the main floor where hundreds of people were working their mechanical calculators (with the associated noise). I closed the door again and said, "Listen." He said, "We will take 250 of them. How soon can you deliver?"

      Being Commodore, they almost screwed up the order, but I did get them delivered within a month.

      Commodore had some of the cleverest designs and some of the worst business practices of any company I ever worked with. Ten years later I was the first in my town selling the Commodore PET. I could have sold 10 or 15 a day, but I couldn't get them, and sometimes when I did get them I would get 80% DOA. I had to order 5 at a time, prepaid, and any RMA systems meant I had to prepay and order 5 more in order to have enough on hand. 10 years later I still had the same problem with handling the Amiga.

      Ahh, the good old days...

      --
      "The mind works quicker than you think!"
  20. There's an app for that by Thunderf00t · · Score: 1

    Yep, you knew it had to be true: iPhone and Android.

    --
    We will never be the change to the weather and the sea
  21. Collection by PPH · · Score: 1

    In addition to one I carry (Pickett Model N 3-T) I have a decent collection, including some special purpose 'slide rules' or circular calculators. Like an Air Force MB-2A. And a couple of (now declassified) missile and nuclear weapons effects calculators.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  22. More than logarithms by goombah99 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    there were lots of possible slide bars. Ones for trigonometry, etc.. Most of the boeing planes up to the 747 were made by engineers who still used slide rules. Sure there were calculators and computing machines too, but slide rules were still in use by old timers.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:More than logarithms by Agripa · · Score: 1

      I still use my slide rules for calculating whole number ratios which is very handy for stoichiometry although my HP-50g does have a function which sort of works for that.

  23. Re:The great thing about slide rules by rickb928 · · Score: 1

    Easy if you understand the equation. Any two values and all.

    But with the slide rule, how did you decide to choose a particular pair of values? Choose one and find the other? Pretty much the same process.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  24. Cliff Stoll's slide rule by crepe-boy · · Score: 1

    I still have an old supermarket-purchased slide rule from my days at school (I was schooled at the juncture between slide rules/log tables and pocket calculators). After reading Cliff Stoll's article (http://www.uvm.edu/~pdodds/files/papers/others/2006/stoll2006a.pdf) I treated myself to a Faber-Castell 2/83N and I have to agree that it is *beautiful*. On my desk at work I keep its miniature cousin, a 62/83N prominently displayed.

    1. Re:Cliff Stoll's slide rule by linuxwrangler · · Score: 1

      I've visited Cliff at his home and he had one of the giant teaching slide rules hanging up.

      FWIW, here's a shot of some I own. They span from me back to my great grandfather:
      https://www.flickr.com/photos/...

      --

      ~~~~~~~
      "You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
  25. Verniers by goombah99 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The digital caliper replaced the analog caliper. I miss the vernier scale, a really clever invention to squeeze out one more digit of precision than one would think possible. I doubt most kids today have any idea what a vernier scale is. The differential micrometer is another very clever device which works like a mechanical version of the vernier. My guess someone thought of it after seeing a vernier scale.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:Verniers by by+(1706743) · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That was one of the first things I was taught in the machine shop class (took it a few years back). Indeed, pretty cute trick. Of course I generally use digital calipers...but I listen to music on a tube amp (ST-70), so it all evens out ;)

    2. Re:Verniers by laejoh · · Score: 1

      Squeeze out one more? Like Marshall did with their amplifiers?

    3. Re: Verniers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Any machinist should still be able to read a vernier, they're on any decent set of micrometers. It's also fairly common to keep a set of vernier calipers around for measuring dirty parts that you don't want your Starrett set to even look at.

    4. Re:Verniers by trout007 · · Score: 1

      My main calipers and micrometer are Starrett analogs. I like not having to replace the battery or having the value jump if your battery is low. I bought them for myself when I graduated college about 20 years ago. They cost about $400 today.

      --
      I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
    5. Re: Verniers by rfengr · · Score: 1

      Ditto. I have Starett analog caliper and micrometer, and another Starett analog caliper in metric. I HATE digital calipers.

    6. Re:Verniers by Revv · · Score: 1

      I still have my vernier caliper. The nice thing about vernier calipers is that they do not grow legs and walk off. Digital one seem to have this capability.

    7. Re:Verniers by Agripa · · Score: 1

      You can still buy new vernier calipers. I have one for the same reason that I have an HP-50g which can be summed up with this dialog which has happened more than once:

      "Hey, can I borrow your calculator|calipers?"
      "Sure, here you go."
      *hands over HP-50g or vernier caliper*
      *silence while borrower examines HP-50g or vernier caliper*
      "Um, no thanks."

    8. Re: Verniers by Agripa · · Score: 1

      Also, you can use them as clamps when the supervisor is not watching.

    9. Re:Verniers by Agripa · · Score: 1

      They make solar powered digital calipers which operate on ambient room lighting.

  26. engineering precision. by goombah99 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Indeed, small difference of large numbers is only a problem for computers who brute force things. Quad precision is for wimps. Engineers had lots of tricks for re-writing equations so that the terms would naturally sum to a small number without large intermediates. I recall learning 4 different ways to write the quadratic formula that would avoid cases where b^2-4ac was the difference of large numbers or -b + sqrt(b^2-4ac) was the difference of large numbers. Since comuters I don't think I've ever seen that used. it's always coded with the textbook -b + sqrt(b^2-4ac). This is also why many eignenvalue algorithms give signular results in modern compuations. People don't spend the time to figure out how to avoid those precision level differences.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:engineering precision. by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

      News flash: Computers do that, too.

      Many transcendental functions are the result of some sort of series formula and most of them have values where the series converges very rapidly or very slowly.

      To get the most precise answer in the minimum amount of time, the computer implementations of these functions pull exactly the same sort of tricks to fold computations over into the fast zone.

  27. Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time. by mcswell · · Score: 4, Funny

    Slide rules are indeed a very old technology. In fact, the underlying principle goes all the way back to Noah.

    After Noah got off the Ark, he sent the animals to go forth and multiply. And each month he went out to see how they were doing. As you might guess, after the first month or so there were baby rabbits, then baby cats and dogs soon after, and even a baby elephant after the first year. But month after month, Noah could find no baby snakes.

    Finally it dawned on him that the snakes were cold blooded, and needed to sun themselves in order to get active. But the wet ground, and the lack of trees, had been perfect for bushes, weeds, and all kinds of plants, and the snakes were getting shaded out as it were. So Noah went back to the Ark, collected some timbers he'd used to strengthen the decks, and used them to build a table. And sure enough, the next month there were baby snakes! (scroll down...)















    Which just shows to go, even an adder can multiply if you give him a log table.

  28. Miyazaki "The Wind Rises" animates a slide rule by DutchUncle · · Score: 1

    In this recent animated film from Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, the hero is an aeronautical engineer, and there is a scene which includes a loving closeup of a log-log-decilog slide rule. It establishes beyond doubt that engineering is heroic, just like a Final Fantasy sword-as-long-as-wielder-is-tall. (I went to engineering school when a 4-function calculator cost $200 and still required a wall plug; by the time I graduated, you could get one with four functions plus square root that worked on batteries.)

  29. Jesus Christ used a slide rule by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

    Holy crap, I'm old and even I never used a slide rule. Calculators were just coming out when I was in 8th or 9th grade and by the time I had graduated High School they were everywhere. $40 or $50 would get you a pretty damn good calculator.

    If not for my $15 Texas Instruments calculator (a mandatory purchase for tech school) I never would have made it through and neither would anyone else in my classes. Calculating Thevenin circuit values would have taken all day on a slide rule. We'd have spent most of our class time fiddle-fucking with slide rules instead of actually learning electrical theory.

    Yeah, they're cool and all that but so were buggy whips, and I had no desire to use one of those either.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    1. Re:Jesus Christ used a slide rule by techno-vampire · · Score: 1

      Holy crap, I'm old and even I never used a slide rule.

      No, you're not old, you just think you are. I used a slide rule in high school and college, although electronic desktop calculators were just starting to come out. I didn't buy my first four-function calculator until I was in the Navy, back in '72; if memory serves, I got it in Hong Kong for almost $200 American, and it lasted for several decades.

      --
      Good, inexpensive web hosting
    2. Re:Jesus Christ used a slide rule by mschaffer · · Score: 1

      The way Apple supporters carry on, you would think that Jesus used an iPhone.

      Anyhow, you are probably not that old or didn't do much math.

  30. Specialty rules lasted beyond the early 70's by gordguide · · Score: 1

    As has already been mentioned, when I took my Pilot's License the Cessena Student Kit included a Circular Rule, and was the standard tool used everywhere in Aviation. If you boarded an aircraft during the 1980's, you were depending on a type of Slide Rule to get wherever you were going safely; if you were flying a light aircraft you probably used one up until sometime in the last decade.

    When I owned a retail store in an industry where discounts from MSRP were Standard Operating Procedure, we kept our Wholesale Price Lists at the front counter and staff made quotes and/or sales based on Cost Plus [our required margin]. The margin was based on paying all the bills and taxes and leaving between 5 and 10% as Net Profit for the year.

    We used a Circular Slide Rule for that and other calculations, such as "We Pay The Tax" calculations to find the required retail price, the required Sales Tax amount, to, say, sell an item for $120 all in. And so on.

    Our Retail stores used them up until the late 80's. With a manual entry sales invoice, a Cardboard Box for record storage (File Storage Boxes) and a Cash Box, we sold $Millions annually and had records of sales (e.g. for warranty work) for a decade that would fit in a closet.

    We used Pocket Calculators to do addition/subtraction math, such as adding up the quote or writing the Sales Invoice. The "lack of precision" of the Rule made quotes much easier since you would get a visual representation of your cost plus margin, which made rounding to two or fewer decimal precision very easy.

    One notable feature of the system was speed ... it was WAY faster to create a quote, give "ballpark" figures for transactions during the Sales or Demo phase (over the phone, like 5 seconds) or do a complete transaction of, say, 10 items with brief descriptions and Serial Numbers in less than a minute. It still drives me a bit crazy in retail as a customer today when it comes to how long it takes for simple transactions.

    1. Re:Specialty rules lasted beyond the early 70's by mschaffer · · Score: 1

      I just started pilot training. I was given and was instructed how to use an E6B flight calculator. It's pretty nifty.

  31. One of hte last by kevmeister · · Score: 1

    In 1971 I took the required freshman Engineering slide rule class. Not too difficult as I had been using my father's K+E Log-log Duplex Decatrig for many years and my father had taught me many tricks to squeeze out one more significant digit. (I still have it.) Not only was it dropped from requirements, but it was not even taught the next year. I still think it was a bad idea.

    I also took tube design (valve to you Brits) and I still think that what I learned there was invaluable even though I never worked on any tube circuit other than CRTs and Thyratrons.

    Slide rules still catch errors that a calculator won't.

    --
    Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer, Retired
  32. Log tables for the win! by Terje+Mathisen · · Score: 1

    I had both the school issued smallish slide rule and one I had inherited from my father which was much nicer.

    However, I used log tables when I wanted even more accurate answers: One year my main wish on my Christmas list was a book that provided full 5-digit log tables. :-)

    After I read about Taylor series I realized that I could calculate anything to any accuracy I wanted, but it still took a couple of hours (high school physics class) to calculate pi by hand with 20+ digits using the arctan formula.

    (At this point in time, ~1975, I had just bought my first calculator, a TI SR50A which still works when I connect it to a couple of AA batteries instead of the original NiCd rechargable.)

    Terje

    --
    "almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"
    1. Re:Log tables for the win! by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

      In my town the local predecessor to Wal-Mart sold little Dennison pocket guides for maybe $1.00 each (it was a LONG time ago, you nasty little lawn-walker!)

      One of my favorites was a book of tables with 6-digit precision. Loved the symmetry: Log 2 = 0.301030!

  33. I had an office at Pickett building by mbeckman · · Score: 1

    For several years in the late 1990s and early 2000's I had an office in the former Pickett slide-rule factory building in Santa Barbara California, on Gutirrez Street. The building was originally a giant aircraft Quonset hut made out of sheet metal, and was located on the site of the former Santa Barbara airport before the airport moved north of town. While rummaging through some old materials in the attic area, we came across a giant 10 foot long slide rule, apparently used by Pickett for marketing or training purposes. In the 1960s and 70s,

    Santa Barbara was a hotbed for DARPA projects, and sliderules were an important everyday engineering tool.

    Ironically, another tenant of the building while I was there was Larry Green, who helped build the first node on the original ARPAnet, which ultimately became the Internet. Larry had an actual Internet message processor (IMP) front panel in his office, and all the associated documentation. It was fascinating listening to him tell about the early development of Internet communications technologies.

    I just came across a blog entry of Larry Green's IMP work in Archive.org: http://web.archive.org/web/200...

    Two revolutionary cusp technologies in the same obscure, non-description building. A fascinating coincidence.

  34. Re:Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time by binarstu · · Score: 1

    Three puns in one punchline - nicely done!

  35. Sci Fi quote about slide rules by trawg · · Score: 1

    As someone too young to have seen slide rules, I nonetheless loved this quote when I read it in Asimov's "I, Robot":

    So they waited and relaxed until the drawing-board men and the slide-rule boys had said âoeOK!â

    Despite the references to the nerd technology of the time, the intent of the sentence is so clear that it brought a smile to my face, thinking of the nerds that would have read that back when it was written and instantly feeling a sense of recognition.

  36. Slide rules Ha! by BlindRobin · · Score: 1

    Sure we had slide rules, I've still got three, but Us Real Geeks had an IBM 360 reference (green) card tucked behind our pocket protectors along with the assembly ref. Just for the cool factor you understand because we had them committed to our magical meat memories and analysed our core dumps easier than mortals could read a bus schedule.

  37. Still have my high school plastic Pickett by smchris · · Score: 1

    Log Log for $1.50 with a pigskin cover. We suspected the pigs used werent that fresh.

    Didnt see a calculator until I was a senior in college and their library got some desktop LED models.

  38. Slide rules were never like cell phones... by mschaffer · · Score: 1

    I never used my slide rules in the fashion of a cell phone. However, my cell phone does have a calculator.
    Also, I never wore mine off of my belt. The good ones were too long and too expensive to dangle and flail about. Most people I knew had a pocket one for convenience and a better, longer one for the real work.

  39. Status symbol? Only to us geeks by sjbe · · Score: 1

    Slide Rules were the first personal computers and a status symbol akin to what cellphones are today.

    "Status symbol"? Maybe if you were in physics class with the other geeks. More of a scarlet letter to the rest of the population.

    Don't get me wrong, I've used a slide rule (dad lent me his) and rocked it proudly but let's not pretend it was a status symbol outside of a very narrow group of people.

  40. Still in use today in general aviation by sirwired · · Score: 1

    While the "slip stick" is no longer used pretty much anywhere, any amateur pilot will be able to quickly demonstrate his E6-B Flight Computer. The proper use of this device is mandatory to obtain a pilot's license, and it's actually a pretty decent way to perform a lot of quick, yet otherwise-complex calculations for fuel burn, wind drift, en-route time, etc.

    In commercial aviation, they've been replaced by flight-planning software and more sophisticated avionics and navigation systems, but they are still in wide use for people flying "personal" aircraft.

  41. Deviating slightly by dhaen · · Score: 1

    During an language course I proudly showed my teacher that I'd programmed my new Psion Organiser to display conjugations of all the verbs and adjectives we'd covered. His reply was swift: "Very Interesting" - "It's obviously cleverer that you are"/

  42. Fast Change from Analog to Digital by Gim+Tom · · Score: 1

    I graduated with a BS in engineering in 1970. In 1973, while stationed at Wright Patterson in the Air Force, I was able to take an "after hours" graduate level electrical engineering course at Wright State University in Dayton. When I went to the first class there were exactly two people (that's 10 people for those who think in binary) who had slide rules. ME and the PROFESSOR. Everyone else had a calculator by then.

    Shortly after taking that class the first Texas Instrument scientific calculator became available in the Base Exchange for just under $100. I bought one immediately.

    Another example of the very fast change from Analog to Digital happened where I worked. We had a problem that required an APPROXIMATE solution to a number of partial differential equations and the estimates for running it on the large mainframes available to us at that time were way out of our budget. However, we had access to a very nice and large analog computer that was just gathering dust and a few of us were able to set up the problem on it and run a solutions that were fine for our needs in just a few hours.

    Finally, engineers who learned the trade on slip sticks had to have a pretty good idea if the answers even made sense or were way out of the ball park. As digital calculations, either on calculators or computers, replaced the three or four significant figures available from a slide rule the wrong solutions were often calculated with great precision.

  43. Easy to Use ? by JimSadler · · Score: 1

    We were required to use slide rules in a college level chemistry course. For complex calculations involving very large numbers and step by step solutions covering multiple pages of formal proofs the slide rule was sort of hell on Earth. It was as if you were trying to drill down through a very skilled use of the slide rule all the while trying to keep your mind on the chemical equations you were dealing with. It could be done but one solid hour of that could drain your mind in such a way that it left you stupid for several hours.

    1. Re:Easy to Use ? by InterGuru · · Score: 1

      I remember the physics department department's computer in 1960. An IBM 1620, the size of a teacher's desk, costing ten times as much as my parents' house, and the power of a $10 Casio digital watch.

      We loved it. It could do in an hour when took us months of slide rule or mechanical calculator work.

      Now a cheap desktop could do the work in a small fraction of a second.

  44. I remember those days with a sly drool by InterGuru · · Score: 1

    I still have my K&E log-log made of mahogany with a plastic vernier scale.

  45. Why the hate for digital? by sjbe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have Starett analog caliper and micrometer, and another Starett analog caliper in metric. I HATE digital calipers.

    Other than the battery issue I don't really understand why you would dislike digital calipers. Our shop uses both analog and digital. The ONLY real advantage to analog is that you don't have to change batteries ever, which for some situations is nice. Otherwise the calibration procedures are the same and they work similarly effectively. Digital ones in my experience tend to be modestly easier to use but the difference is very minor outside of some specialty applications.

    If you get drawings in both metric and US customary like us, carrying two measuring devices quickly becomes tiresome. Digital can switch between with a press of a button which is nice. Digital calipers can also output readings to a computer directly which can be really handy if you do a lot of it for stuff like PPAPs. There's nothing wrong with a good analog measuring device but there's nothing wrong with a good digital one either.

    1. Re:Why the hate for digital? by rfengr · · Score: 1

      The digital give me too much information, sort of like a standard calculator that shows full display width precision, vs engineering notation on my RPN (really showing my age now). Also when comparing parts it's easier to just look at the approximate difference in dial movement than remember the two numbers and subtract them in my head. I'm not a mechanical guy though, an RF/Microwave EE, so that's just how I think. I hate digital watches too, rather I have a 24 hour analog watch.

  46. Slide Rules by mrhippo3 · · Score: 1

    I was the first student on Carnegie-Mellon's campus with a calculator. People ask me how I knew. The answer is, they were generally unaffordable at $250 ($1,500 current dollars).That said, I had straight (a few), and both types of circular slide rules. The first type had two indicators (this was a Gilson slide rule, the same kind held by Peter Sellers in 'Dr. Strangelove'.) The second type had a rotating disk and one indicator (made by Concise). I found and bought another one with a bunch of conversion tables in Paris in 1974.

  47. Estimation and Slide Rules by sbaker · · Score: 1

    The thing about a slide rule is that it can tell you what the mantissa of the result is - but not the exponent. You have to figure that out yourself. Is 3x3 = 0.9, 9, 90 or 900? The slide rule doesn't really tell you that - so you're forced to do an estimate of the result in order to get a fast answer. This process of estimating was a useful double-check on the sanity of the result that is not present with things like calculators. So while the precision of a sliderule couldn't come close to a calculator, the discipline of using one did reduce the error rate for gross errors.

    When I got my first calculator, I gleefully ditched my slide rule - but I did come to mourn it's passing. Of course you *can* use the same estimation techniques to use as a backup check on a calculator too - but because you don't absolutely need to - you don't.

    --
    www.sjbaker.org
  48. Re:hence the old joke... slide rule accuracy by steelscalp · · Score: 1

    I had (still have) a circular slide rule that gave me 5-6 digit accuracy. But for most engineering work 3-digit accuracy may be enough. (Do you really want to trust your life to something that doesn't have more than 1% design margin?)

  49. Still use mine to teach kids about logarithms by brausch · · Score: 1

    I learned to use one in high school and bought my own as a freshman in engineering. Used it full time till I bought my first calculator in 1975 (HP RPN-style, of course).

    I still pull it out to show students when they are learning about logarithms in school. I was doing just that earlier this week in fact. And my younger colleagues at work are always interested.

    --
    "Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it." - George Santayana
  50. High School and the S&E by BenBoy · · Score: 1

    Concise/Sama&Etani ST600 was my go-to in high school. A circular slide rule, it had a little insert with an incredibly detailed, dense plastic cheat sheet (the sheets varied, math-oriented, chem oriented, etc.) and a periodic table on the back. Shirt-pocket sized, if you wore the right pocket protector ;-) Pics at the link just fill me with nostalgia (for my visual acuity at the time; sucker's hard to read now ... sigh).

  51. Almost everyone has a cell phone by sjbe · · Score: 1

    I designed computer chips, then later on controllers for spacecraft and don't own a cellphone. I'm fairly normal (I think, but don't we all). I had one, but never used it and it got lost.

    You might be quite normal in many ways but not having a cell phone is decidedly not normal these days. I barely know anyone who doesn't have a cell phone. Some admittedly use them more than others and not everyone has a smart phone but it's actually kind of hard to find anyone who isn't a child who doesn't have one.

  52. first personal computers by iggymanz · · Score: 1

    I'm sure small abacus are a wee bit older than any slide rule, and they can add, subtract, multiply, divide and take roots

  53. Don't buy more gauge than you need by sjbe · · Score: 1

    The digital give me too much information,

    Only if you purchase a measuring device with greater precision than you need. For example we have a set of micrometers at my shop that measure to three decimal places. We could have purchased ones that do more but since our presses that make the parts they measure cannot do better than +/-0.001" there is no point in having a measuring device more precise. That isn't an analog vs digital thing. These ones happen to be analog but we would have done the same thing if they were digital.

    Also when comparing parts it's easier to just look at the approximate difference in dial movement than remember the two numbers and subtract them in my head.

    Depends on what you are comparing I suppose. For what we do approximations are of no value at all. Either the part is in spec or it isn't. Perhaps what you are doing is different but that would be an unusual case.

  54. Sure are a lot of ... by Rudisaurus · · Score: 1

    ... low-digit IDs posting on this topic. Yep, that's the demographic.

    (disclaimer: I too have an old plastic K&E tucked away in a box somewhere downstairs)

    --
    licet differant, aequabitur
  55. Is this news by barbariccow · · Score: 1

    Or nostalgia?

  56. Back in school... by treczoks · · Score: 1

    About 30 years ago, we already had pocket calculators in school. My elder sister, though, still had a book about calculating with a slide rule. I managed to get the book from her and a slide rule from someone else, and started exploring. Being the math geek in class, I could afford a bit of risk, so I brought the slide rule to a test where all my classmates used calculators (I still had mine in the bag in case the teacher would forbid using the slide rule). You should have seen the faces when I used that "plastic thingie" - and still was the first to finish, and later got the top score in class (again). Some even accused me of cheating, but the teacher was quite amused about it.

    It was a fun experience, and I could even teach other people about it in university - we had a giant, working slide rule (a few meters long, probably an old demonstration device from a lecture room once) as a decoration on a wall.

  57. Slide Rule vs Calculator Race by obscuro · · Score: 1

    My HS science teacher would race people with calculators and always win with his slide rule. When he was at his desk he'd move the thing back and forth really fast but when he was racing someone he always slid it along all even and slow and eyeballed them like they were trying to get him to believe a lie or something. It was really funny to watch.

    --
    Every rule has more than one consequence.