Slide Rule

TI 35
My aunt worked there in Massachusetts & got it for me.
That's alot o years back

 

Yup, used it in high school, then a buddy had a brother at the university, he got me a circular one. Got an iPhone slide rule app a few years back, but honestly, it lost its appeal

 

Until I broke the slide, I carried around a Picket aluminum 6’ Log-Log rule for years. Still have my Post and the book that explained every scale and operation. Used it after calculators were popular.

Have been on the lookout for a good circular slide rule. Have yet to find one that hasn’t been priced like an original 54 Strat...

 

Ditto. I have a really nice one. Don't know how to use it and never have.

 

I used one of those as a kid. Was pretty good with it.
Have one hanging on the wall of my office right next to me.

 

I had one semester in high school, right before they phased them out.

Still have a cheapo student "pedigree" plastic one around here somewhere, but I don't remember how to do anything with it.

Got a TI83 and a TI89 left over from later days, as well

And a "TRS-80 pocket computer" which ran on BASIC. 4k of RAM.

 

Spouse is as accurate with one of these as I am with a slide rule (and I was raised on a slide rule, my father teaching me how to use his when.I was in middle school) ... but...

She's faster.

ETA:
Mine, and my father's.

 

Yup, cut my teeth on a slide rule. Used one on my mechanical engineering batchelors and masters degrees. Calculators came in at this point and I used these for my PhD work.

The great thing is that you still have to figure out where the decimal point goes in a calculated answer from a slide rule. Seems like a pain when electronic calculators do this for you, but doing it for yourself makes you more aware of real numbers and better at mental arithmetic.

 

Still got one here.

 

I never ised a slide rule. I do own a planimeter though.

 

Dad taught me to use a slide rule as a kid. I still have his and mine somewhere.

 

Still have mine. I used it through the last years of school and through an electrical apprenticeship. By the time I began my BSc as a mature student calculators had evolved enough to make slide rules unfashionable. Never used it again but always kept it in the back of the drawer "just in case".

 

While we are on the subject, this is my dear old dad's cylindrical slide rule which he gave to me.

It's equivalent to a 'straight' slide rule length of around 30 ft as I recall him telling me. He used it in his job as an aircraft design engineer back in the late '40s, just after WW2.

 

That's a beauty. I've only ever seen one anything like it, in the local museum.

 

Thanks.

There are still a few around, they come up on eBay from time to time asking £300 or so, but it's not for sale.

I just realised that it's about the same age as me give or take a year or two!

 

If you know how to relate dB to a log scale, I'd like to know. dB vs power is a known calculation. dB vs perceived loudness is still in debate.[/QUOTE]

Not sure if this helps (or if it's readable)

 

A slide rule was part of our freshman load-out in engineering school. Everyone got a brand-new K&E slide rule complete with a leather case and belt loop. It was a thing, I still have mine somewhere buried under a pile of physics books.

 

Not sure about round ones but there was a company out of Canada was still supplying them some years back.