Whither the Slide Rule?

[Polishprince]

I notice that one of my teachers in high school recently passed away at the age of 101, in the subject of chemistry.

One of the topics that we were taught in the course was the proper use of a Slide Rule- a key tool in both science and engineering. I still have mine from high school.

I was speaking last winter with my nephew who is an engineer, he just graduated from a top university, and although he knew what a slide rule was, he didn't have a clue as to its use.

Was the world better off learning useful information, like the Slide Rule instead of the crap like putting condoms on Butternut squashes that the children learn today?

https://www.sliderulemuseum.com/SR_Course.htm

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

I notice that one of my teachers in high school recently passed away at the age of 101, in the subject of chemistry.

One of the topics that we were taught in the course was the proper use of a Slide Rule- a key tool in both science and engineering. I still have mine from high school.

I was speaking last winter with my nephew who is an engineer, he just graduated from a top university, and although he knew what a slide rule was, he didn't have a clue as to its use.

Was the world better off learning useful information, like the Slide Rule instead of the crap like putting condoms on Butternut squashes that the children learn today?

https://www.sliderulemuseum.com/SR_Course.htm

Yeah, those slide rules come in handy when your $1.00 solar powered calculator runs out of juice on a really cloudy day!

 

[DGS49]

Slide rules only gave an approximation of the answer; you had to have an idea what it was in order to read it correctly.

I had a "rich" uncle who gave me a good slide rule as a high school graduation present. Pearls before swine.

 

[rightwinger]

I used one my first semester in college. Calculators were so expensive in the early seventies

They were an amazing tool and you developed a mental skill to keep track of the decimal places