21 Jun
2011
21 Jun
'11
1:11 p.m.
> It's been so long sine I have HAD to use one,
I cannot, for the life of me
> remember how to use my slide rule :(
On Tue, 21 Jun 2011, Tony Duell wrote:
Eh? If you undersnad what a slide rule really does (it
add lengths
essentially) and know what a logarithm is, you don;t need to remember
hgow to sue one.
In addition to using scales C & D to add logarithms (multiply!),
scales A & D (or B & C) give you squares and square roots.
A decent slide rule usually had half a dozen other useful scales.
In 1966?, for the SATs?, slide rules were not permitted, and, for obvious
historical reasons, they didn't need to write calculators in the rules. I
couldn't afford to test their reaction to a Curta.
But they encouraged us to bring scratch paper! Even log paper! It did
not require any serious origami skill to make a quite usable slide rule.
The next year, THEY supplied blank unlined scratch paper.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com