The sliderule had one huge advantage over the electronic calculator: you had to actually understand something about math to use it. My experience with my students now, (yes, I am THAT high school math teacher -- the one everybody tries not to get) is that few have any idea how those magic boxes work. Worse, most don't care. Incidently, if you think you got ridiculed for owning one as a guy, you should have tried it in the pre-feminist 60's as a girl.
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The sliderule had one huge advantage over the electronic calculator: you had to actually understand something about math to use it. My experience with my students now, (yes, I am THAT high school math teacher -- the one everybody tries not to get) is that few have any idea how those magic boxes work. Worse, most don't care. Incidently, if you think you got ridiculed for owning one as a guy, you should have tried it in the pre-feminist 60's as a girl.