Yep. I have both a K&E and a Pickett&Eckels somewhere--maybe could find one of them in the garage. Best one I had was a Log-Log-Duplex-Decitrig.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by LastCubScout:
Never used one. Don't know how to use an abacus either.

How about Napier's Bones?

I think the most fun I ever had doing calculations was extracting square roots using an old 20-digit Friden® electromechanical machine. Anyone watching the procedure would swear the operator had lost his mind--but it produced accurate 10-digit answers, and fairly quickly.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:

quote:

Originally posted by LastCubScout:
Never used one. Don't know how to use an abacus either.

How about Napier's Bones?

I think the most fun I ever had doing calculations was extracting square roots using an old 20-digit Friden® electromechanical machine. Anyone watching the procedure would swear the operator had lost his mind--but it produced accurate 10-digit answers, and fairly quickly.

flashguy

Probably using Newton's method for approximating roots.

I bought one when I was in high school.

Hand-held calculators were still very expensive and they couldn't do the math operations I wanted to do. (square root, cube root, logarithms, etc.)

In using it, I would typically first figure out something I knew the answer of. (like the cube root of 27 is 3) Once I figured out what scale I was supposed to be on, I'd plug in my numbers and get my answer. The teachers accepted "slide rule accuracy" in grading tests.

So if the answer was 3.1 and you said 3.3, you would get credit for a correct answer. (not .5, not 10, not 100)

Admittedly, things became much easier when multi-function TI calculators came out and were reasonably priced...

quote:

Originally posted by LastCubScout:
Never used one. Don't know how to use an abacus either.

Originally posted by flashgun:
How about Napier's Bones? I think the most fun I ever had doing calculations was extracting square roots using an old 20-digit Friden® electromechanical machine.

Originally posted by senza nome:
Probably using Newton's method for approximating roots.

Haha! You guys sound funny making up these big nonsensical words.

Vaguely remember how to use one, mine is packed away somewhere. Haven't used it since 1970.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
I ran across my K&E slide rule today. I vaguely remember how to use it. Anyone else?

I had to buy a Sterling Precision (Ha!) plastic wonder rule for high school, in 1968. Used the hell out of it, and still have it. Bought a K&E rule, and the book on how to use it, at a yard sale for a couple of bucks some years ago because I always wanted a good one. For anything other than multiplication / division I've got to get out the book.

The plastic fantastic 40+ year old (how the hell did THAT happen?) resides in my truck for quick gas mileage calculations.

I have a sickness for items like slide rules and have a couple of rotating flight computers, but have absolutely no idea how to use them.

I'm afraid I still know how to use my 50 year old K&E. I take it into work once a year, and show the new engineers how it used to be done. I was a Senior in college when the HP-35 came out. I couldn't afford it ($400; it might as well as been $4M) and only one guy in my ME class could afford one. I was green with envy!

I can still do the easy stuff on the slip stick, but the exponential and hyperbolic stuff is waaaay too many brain cells ago.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: aileron,

quote:

Originally posted by slyguy:
Oh Hell No

I can use reverse polish notation like a bat outta hell though. Does that count?

My HP 34c saved my bacon in optics classes where vectors had to be converted to x y coordinates, added (or subtracted) and then re converted to polar coordinates. I remember one lab where I finished a test in 10 minutes a good half hour before the next student.

Try that with a slide rule! <edited to add this line to make it relevant to the OP> Convinced a few others to switch to HP.

Also wrote a few programs to automate some repetitive calculations, with a 49 line limit IIRC. Still have those programs written out and stored somewhere.

I have and still use an HP 32SII RPN scientific - I can't think well in algebraic.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
I've still got my K&E and I remember how to use it.

You haven't lived until you've tried to get three significant digits out of one of them fuckers after being up the night before drinking coffee.

Fixed it for you :-)

I got a mini one and a regular sized one.

I can do multiplication. squaring maybe.

My class in Nuclear Power School was the last class required to use slide rules in class. We were allowed to use a calculator for homework.

You know, with a fine line Sharpie and a little work you could get at least 4 place accuracy out of that thing.

quote:

Originally posted by snwghst:
Wow. Sorry about the size

This is hanging on my fathers kitchen wall. About 8' long

Wilhelm Keuffel and Hermann Esser

Keuffel & Esser Co. factories were based in Hoboken, New Jersey (USA), with offices in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, Detroit, and Montreal. Started in 1867, slide rules were only a very small part of K+E's product offering, which included everything from drafting paper to survey instruments and drafting aids. K+E held patents for a wide range of slide rule features, including improved cursor indicators, functions and scales, and the adjustable body mechanism. Caught by the huge market shift created by electronic calculators, CAD systems and laser surveying systems, which displaced all of their strong markets, K+E shrank dramatically after 1972.

http://www.sphere.bc.ca/test/ke-sliderule.html

1972 = HP-35

quote:

Originally posted by MNSIG:
I never used one for math class, but did when I started flying back in the 80s. The pilot's "Whiz Wheel" is basically circular slide rule.

I'm a fair hand with the E-6B.

The Navy used a different one (the CR-3?) that I used for a short time in Joint training. I kind of liked it, but they made us turn them in when the class was over.

I did know how. I had a couple of Pickets - they were required when I went through USN nuclear power school why back when.

"Do you know how to use a slide rule?"


You mean these? Haven't played with them in literally decades.

Aristo MultiLog Charvoz #0970
Keuffel & Esser Deci-Lon 10 #68-1100
Pickett Power Log Exponential #N3P-T
Dietzgen RediRule Pocket Duplex #1776

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bald1,

I had to Google it.

There are several Japanese shops near Balboa Ave. & Mercury St. here in San Diego. In one of them, a Japanese clerk used an abacus to sum my bill. He was damned fast with it. Possibly accurate, too. I don't know for sure, because an abacus doesn't produce a paper tape.

A slide rule does many mathematical operations, but not addition or subtraction.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Always wanting to be different, I had a small Gilson circular slide rule for trig.

I remember that one, but you also had the standard yellow one (I guess that was a K&E?) I remember figuring out how to use it, even thought it was "obsolete" by that point.
Maybe I'll make my students try one when we do logarithms.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
There are several Japanese shops near Balboa Ave. & Mercury St. here in San Diego. In one of them, a Japanese clerk used an abacus to sum my bill. He was damned fast with it. Possibly accurate, too. I don't know for sure, because an abacus doesn't produce a paper tape.

A slide rule does many mathematical operations, but not addition or subtraction.

You can still use it for addition and subtraction:
log(a+b) = log(a) + log(1 + b/a)