Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/12/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On 12/6/05, Frank Filippone <red735i@earthlink.net> wrote: > Speaking of slide rules, which of course, we were not really doing... > > MIT has the old K+E collection of slide rules. I wonder if BD or someone > else knows if they are available on display? > > Apparently there are some really weird ones..... > > I found the article in my father's copy of the MIT Alumni journal. > Apparently the "curator" thought that the really large, around 6 foot, > slide > rule for teaching was really rare.... She looked around 30 years old. > > How many of us in our 50's or 40's were put through slide rule learning > using one of these old timers? > How many of us still remember how to use a slide rule? Me! Me! Although doing the fancy stuff on the log-log scales is now beyond me, the basics I remember and I most definitely remember how to do order of magnitude computations so I get the decimal point right. > How many of us still OWN a slide rule? I still have the one I got as a senior in high school and which took me through college and the Navy and college again. It's a Pickett vector-hyperbolic in yellow. I also have a MUCH older K&E bamboo with ivory face that's illegal about everywhere now to do anything other than look at. Like the keys on my piano (also ivory) it's a beautiful instrument to hold. It literally has a warmth to it that the Pickett never had in all its yellow aluminum glory. My freshman year college physics professor had a large circular rule with a magnifying lens that was quite wonderful. > How many of us still USE a slide rule? Nope. I use a calculator or the computer. (I also have an ORIGINAL HP35 that I used all through my time in the Navy. Still works but has to be plugged in, the battery has gone belly up low these many years ago. Still love HP calculators though. Reverse Polish definately seemd to make sense to me. Adam Adam