>No, I do not have _my_ high school/college slide
rule, which was a
>magnificent 12" yellow aluminum Pickett with a hard leather case and a belt
>loop. ...
Nice! Why have I never seen an aluminium slide rule?
Also, for the benefit of us non-Americans, what approximate age is "high
school"?
At school slide rules were the only permitted calculating machines in
maths classes up to age 16 in my day (academic year 1982-83)
(requirement was dropped a couple of years later). I went through a
series of cheap plastic ones and ended up with an expensive plastic one
- I asked the local stationers for a replacement cursor and they sold me
this really nice slide rule for the same price (one pound) just to get
rid of it! This too has lost its cursor, tho' I believe I still have
the rule somewhere.
More recently I bought a decent wooden one for a similar price at a car
boot sale - still in box with plate glass cursor. I also have a special
purpose cardboard one with two slides that is meant to calculate the
flow of water through pipes of various sizes, materials and gradients.
>700+ units. Me, I have 30, including a 7 foot long
Pickett classroom rule.
Wow! On a 7 foot rule you should be able to get four sig. figs without
too much interpolation anywhere along the length. Or are the markings
too coarse for that?
Philip.