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shk292
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  #1538419 22-Apr-2016 20:59
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Jase2985:

 


 

 

That brings back happy OOW memories.  As an engineer I could do it in my head faster than the fish-heads could do it on the slide rule though

 

Had one of these when I was at school spiral slide rule

 

Gave you an extra decimal place / significant digit compared to a linear rule.  Unfortunately mine completely seized up so became useless




Jase2985
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  #1538420 22-Apr-2016 21:03
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shk292:

 

 

 

 As an engineer I could do it in my head faster than the fish-heads could do it on the slide rule though

 

 

 

 

ditto on both, its funny sitting up there and they are asked where will we be in 5 mins and the sit there fiddling and hum haring and you've already worked it out.


qwertee
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  #1538428 22-Apr-2016 21:16
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Not a slide rule.

 

But used good old tables LOG  Sine, Cos and Tan  and Smith Chart many moons ago.

 

 




tdgeek
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  #1538446 22-Apr-2016 22:01
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Slide Rule, very cool indeed. I wonder how that compares to todays tech? Pretty good I imagine. And compare to todays math?? Excellent I'd say. I feel the three R's have taken a back seat these days


gzt

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  #1538454 22-Apr-2016 22:35
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I bought one in a secondhand shop last year just to play with it.

Geektastic
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  #1538455 22-Apr-2016 22:40
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Honestly? I've never even seen one other than in a photograph.





 
 
 

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.
Rikkitic

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  #1538456 22-Apr-2016 22:43
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Youngun.

 

 





Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

 


 


MadEngineer
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  #1538458 22-Apr-2016 22:45
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1997 at Polytech, nzce maths.

We were suitably gobsmacked at how much a slide rule can do. On the other hand, we had a laugh when shown how hand calculated tables were used as reference for trig/log with a few included inevitable errors.




You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

Geektastic
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  #1538470 22-Apr-2016 23:16
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Rikkitic:

 

Youngun.

 

 

 

 

At 50?!

 

Mind you we were not even allowed calculators in school until I was 14 or thereabouts.






Geektastic
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  #1538471 22-Apr-2016 23:16
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gzt: I bought one in a secondhand shop last year just to play with it.

 

 

 

Do they still make the correct batteries to fit it?






MaxLV
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#1538479 22-Apr-2016 23:31
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DaveB:

 

Rikkitic:

 

For me it was some time in the early 1960s. If  you never used one, or don't know what one is, you are too young for this thread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

THREAD HIJACK!

 

Seeing you think people are too young to partake in this thread if they do not know (or have never used) a slide rule, I think I should up the ante and mention an abacus - just to shorten the list of participants. Both were compulsory at my school. 

 

 

 

 

What about these? 

 

 

 

http://myhandbook.info/table_naperlog.html


 
 
 
 

Shop now on Samsung phones, tablets, TVs and more (affiliate link).
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Smpl Mnmlst
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  #1538510 23-Apr-2016 01:31
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Used one regularly at secondary school in the 1960's - for physics and Applied Maths. Also had to use a book of logarithm, trigonometry and statistics tables (normal curve and other stats and probability functions) - as mentioned above. The 'log book' even had pages of random numbers.





Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.


alexx
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  #1538512 23-Apr-2016 01:42
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I remember having a Faber Castell slide rule at school.
Something like this one I guess, but perhaps mine wasn't quite this nice.



We also had log tables and when I studied telecommunications there were Smith Charts
Do they still have those, or only on the screen of a network analyser?

 

 





#include <standard.disclaimer>


riahon
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  #1538516 23-Apr-2016 03:57
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It seems wrong if they are made of plastic. Not sure why, but it is.


jpoc
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  #1538530 23-Apr-2016 07:37
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I used slide rules at school in the sixties and seventies.

 

Then, when I learned to fly in the nineties, I used an E6B (google it) which combines a circular slide rule with a gadget for calculating the effect of wind on navigation.

 

 


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