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Slide-rule - found one and totally forgot how to use it.

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Chat' started by Joe, Apr 21, 2016.

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  1. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    When I went took engineering in college back in the olden days, personal calculators were just coming on the scene. Almost everybody in my classes used a slide-rule for calculations.

    I saw one at a garage sale and damn, I couldn't remember how to use it. I didn't buy it, but amazing what we forget. I guess the hard drive in the brain was full and something had to be deleted. :evillaugh
     
  2. BlacklabberMike

    BlacklabberMike MIA

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    I don't much about the French I took
     
  3. wormhole

    wormhole VIP Whale

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    I remember slide rules. I probably still have mine buried in some of my old school books. I doubt I can remember how to use it.
     
  4. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Same here. They said you had to take a foreign language in HS to get into to college, so mine was also French. I don't remember a thing, but I remember I hated the teacher. Excusez-moi.
     
  5. wanker751

    wanker751 Dutch Rudder Enthusiast

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  6. Breeze147

    Breeze147 Button Man

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    I was telling a 20 something about slide rules the other day and he looked at me like I was a Martian. Amazing how accurate you could get, though.
     
  7. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    We went to space using them. I still find that amazing.
     
  8. Breeze147

    Breeze147 Button Man

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    Shoot, we built the atomic bomb using them!
     
  9. jamesxnj

    jamesxnj VIP Whale

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    I recall reading the Apollo missions computer on board was a IBM 486 ? If I remember the series #..
     
  10. VegasDawg

    VegasDawg Low-Roller

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    And I know that if you love me too....
     
  11. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    You may be correct, but the Mercury program was back in 1958. No computers or calculators back then. Just the slide-rule and a lot of talented engineers.
     
  12. wanker751

    wanker751 Dutch Rudder Enthusiast

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    What a wonder world it would be...

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  13. wanker751

    wanker751 Dutch Rudder Enthusiast

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    That is amazing... I Balance my checkbook on a computer now!

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  14. BlacklabberMike

    BlacklabberMike MIA

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    Nasa put a man into space using them for the calculations.
     
  15. Johnzimbo

    Johnzimbo VIP Whale

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    Never learned how to use one but in elementary school I could rock a protractor like nobody's business
     
    Annual me and Pete
  16. dmr

    dmr Registered Abuser

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    I was a math minor back in undergrad, and I would admit my real age if I said what year, but yes, we did use slide rules. For one course we had to have "log log" scales, as in arbitrary powers and roots. I haven't touched one for years although I'm sure I could multiply and divide on one just from memory.
     
  17. Joe Strummer

    Joe Strummer VIP Whale

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    I'm an 'ol "Stick + Rudder" man, myself.
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    I think I had a semester of math where we studied The Slide Ruler exclusively.
    I didn't......but the class did.
    *
    "Sure, I speak Spanish........I took 4 years of Spanish One !"
     
  18. Royal Flusher

    Royal Flusher Savvy Gambler

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    Easy to use, you just pull your belt out a bet, reach around, and scratch carefully.
     
  19. Royal Flusher

    Royal Flusher Savvy Gambler

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    More like a PDP-8.

    Jimmy Poon cut his teeth on a PDP-11, using it to play Star Trek, a text-based very slow shoot-em game.

    - - - Updated - - -

    I learned more from a 3 minute record than I ever learned in school.
     
  20. Jake_37221

    Jake_37221 Tourist

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    I still have my slide rule from high school (ugh, 50 years ago). I'm going to take it down to the Pawn Star guys in 3 weeks and get Chumly to give me $500 for it.:eek:
     
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