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Ask HN: Is there anyone here who still uses slide rules?

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Re: Ask HN: Is there anyone here who still uses slide rules?

#13

Post by coldpie »

bijant wrote: post #10

Knew a mechanical engineer at a place where I interned. Asked him about it and he joked that he didn't trust those transistors before explaining that it's just muscle memory to him and while a calculator would be faster he'd still earn the same per hour. Apparently I was the first to ask him in over a decade as everyone had moved on to do stuff in software and no one was pushing him to use a calculator anymore. Inter…

> while a calculator would be faster he'd still earn the same per hour.

This guy gets it.

Re: Ask HN: Is there anyone here who still uses slide rules?

#15

Post by JohnFen »

betaporter wrote: post #8

I do not use, and have never used, a slide rule. My grandfather was an aeronautical engineering / materials scientist for McDonnell Aircraft, and did a lot of foundational work on heat shields for early space flight (or so I am told). He was eventually named a McDonnell Douglas Fellow, back when there were fewer than 15 Fellows - the company, at the time, took out a full-page ad in Aerospace Magazine announcing it. I…

> I have not the foggiest clue how it is used - but I cherish it.

It's easier and more straightforward than you might expect. I encourage you to learn to use his slide rule, in large part because you might find it fun, but also to honor your grandfather's legacy.

Re: Ask HN: Is there anyone here who still uses slide rules?

#17

Post by gwbas1c »

When I was in high school, (early 1990s,) there was a giant one mounted above the blackboard. It was clearly used for instruction in the past, but it looked so cool that no one wanted to remove it.

Every once in awhile a teacher would spend about 10-15 minutes showing how to use it. Everyone would "oooh" and "awww" and then we would all laugh about how we didn't need to use them now that we all had calculators in our pocket that were more powerful than the computers that put people on the moon.

It's always nice to learn about the past so we can appreciate what we have now.

Re: Ask HN: Is there anyone here who still uses slide rules?

#19

Post by etrautmann »

betaporter wrote: post #8

I do not use, and have never used, a slide rule. My grandfather was an aeronautical engineering / materials scientist for McDonnell Aircraft, and did a lot of foundational work on heat shields for early space flight (or so I am told). He was eventually named a McDonnell Douglas Fellow, back when there were fewer than 15 Fellows - the company, at the time, took out a full-page ad in Aerospace Magazine announcing it. I…

A key idea is that addition for logs is equivalent to multiplication. To multiply two numbers you line them up on a log scale and then read out the sum, which is equivalent to the product. There is much more they can do but that was one aha moment when my dad showed me his.

Re: Ask HN: Is there anyone here who still uses slide rules?

#20

Post by jihadjihad »

gwbas1c wrote: post #17

When I was in high school, (early 1990s,) there was a giant one mounted above the blackboard. It was clearly used for instruction in the past, but it looked so cool that no one wanted to remove it. Every once in awhile a teacher would spend about 10-15 minutes showing how to use it. Everyone would "oooh" and "awww" and then we would all laugh about how we didn't need to use them now that we all had calculators in our…

> we all had calculators in our pocket that were more powerful than the computers that put people on the moon.

Pencils and slide rules are what got us to the moon, and back to Earth. Pencils and slide rules.

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