[TheForge] Slide rules (was: Excessive scaling?)

[Washington, Aubrey O.]

Bruce,
I was a chemistry major for my first couple of years in college.  The rich kids had Texas Instruments SR10 calculators, which I think cost about $110 at the time.  About the only thing the SR10 would do that a slide rule wouldn't (aside from 8 places) was add and subtract.  So I just stuck with the slide rule.  That was no problem with chemistry, but it put me at a disadvantage in physics where they got real anal about large and small numbers.  The physics department had a whole room filled with Wang calculators that worked off the mainframe computer.  I had to use the Wangs for calculations I couldn't do on the slide rule.
 
When I was in high school, my chemistry teacher had an 8-foot long slide rule handing on the wall above the blackboard.  He called it his surfboard and used it daily to demonstrate calculations for the class.  I wish I had one of those, just for grins.  I've seen a few at antique stores over the years.
 
Aubrey

________________________________

From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net on behalf of Bruce Freeman
Sent: Tue 12/12/2006 7:42 AM
To: theforge at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [TheForge] Slide rules (was: Excessive scaling?)



I was a graduate student and  teaching assistant in Chem 101 when
calculators were just "replacing" slide rules.  (When I was in college,
I couldn't AFFORD a calculator!  I used a slide rule throughout.)