I paid a little over $200 for this one. I was happy with that price.
that was a bargain. I would go for that price in a heartbeat
I paid a little over $200 for this one. I was happy with that price.
I see you have a K scale.?ÿ That is x^3 typically.
The cursor also acts like a sort of memory register.?ÿ Say you did 2x4=8.?ÿ Say now you want to multiply 8 by 2.?ÿ You put your cursor over the 8 then run one of the 1 indexes to your cursor (either right or left which ever one doesn't run 2 off the scale).?ÿ Then you read 1.6 under 2, you have to know the answer is really 16.?ÿ You can go on back and forth like this until infinity.
8 is easy but if your intermediate answer falls between marks on the scale it starts to make sense that you would put your cursor over the answer then run your slip stick right or left again, nothing to remember or write down.
There is a way to know where the decimal point goes by how many times you move the "slip stick" part left or right.?ÿ I just can't remember what it is now.
There is a way to know where the decimal point goes by how many times you move the "slip stick" part left or right.?ÿ I just can't remember what it is now.
I computed the volume of a cylinder in cubic feet times 50 each divided by 27 for total cubic yards successfully. I considered that a major accomplishment.
There is a way to know where the decimal point goes by how many times you move the "slip stick" part left or right.?ÿ I just can't remember what it is now.
Yeah, there is a method, but I never thought it was worth keeping track of. I always just did crude mental approximations to set the decimal.
Funny how you guys seemed to think i was joking about "a slide rule for the old guy on the crew", yet here you are proving me correct.
All the current tech we use still can't replace an analog device for evaluating: multiplication, division, exponents, roots, logarithms, trigonometry, etc. (no batteries, etc.)
Funny how you guys seemed to think i was joking about "a slide rule for the old guy on the crew", yet here you are proving me correct.
All the current tech we use still can't replace an analog device for evaluating: multiplication, division, exponents, roots, logarithms, trigonometry, etc. (no batteries, etc.)
I vote Curta
it always works
When I was in school thinking that I was going to be an electrical engineer we had a slide rule class. Our instructor, Fred Carden, looked and acted just like R. Lee Ermy. He had no training in how to teach, and ran the class like it was some form of Basic Training, which most of us did not respond to well. I will say that by the end of the class we knew how to use every scale on the slide rule to solve some sort of electrical engineering problem, although many of them we had not encountered yet. Still remember him 50 years later...
The eyes are glazing over on all participants under 60 at this moment.?ÿ Except for the math nerds who are treating the slip stick as some magic wand to amaze their friends...........both of them.
The eyes are glazing over on all participants under 60 at this moment.?ÿ Except for the math nerds who are treating the slip stick as some magic wand to amaze their friends...........both of them.
It's black magic I tell you this Automatic Proportion Stick.
Of course there is the 3 significant digit limitation, not very useful for most surveying problems.?ÿ I heard a rumor there were vernier models to gain a significant digit but I haven't seen one.
I can't imagine how a vernier could be set up for the non-linear scales.
My great uncle's 20 inch rule cut the uncertainty in half compared to the common size.?ÿ
I've seen an antique multi-section slide rule with the sections mounted on a reel, claimed to be equivalent to a 40-ft or so long slide rule.?ÿ Very awkward and probably hard to keep the multiple segments in calibration. Maybe this model found here https://www.sliderulemuseum.com/Rarities.htm
?ÿ
But, but, the magic trig numbers were to five places after the decimal in the handy dandy trig function tables in the big book.?ÿ I had a professor who claimed he could read his stick in a case hanging from his belt to five places.
@bill93 I didn't really think about it, someone claimed in a YouTube comment that some had verniers to gain a significant digit but you are right, don't know how that would work.
This got started because YouTube started suggesting old Mechanical Adding Machine (some could multiply and divide too) videos so I got interested in them.?ÿ I had no idea what a huge variety of machines were available.?ÿ Then I saw a few slide rule videos.
I could buy a mechanical machine, they are pretty cheap if one is nearby but they are often frozen because the old lubricants harden so they need to be freed up, cleaned and then oiled with the correct oil.?ÿ Then I thought I have my Dad's engineering slide rule so I could use it for free, no need to try to find a machine then play mechanic trying to get it to work.
To effectively use a machine I would need a book of tables, have 2 or 3 books of various tables in my downtown office but I spend very little time in there.
Nice Museum! I believe the green instrument is a Wild RK1 alidade for Plane Table work. Rarely seen!
@MightyMoe the military still did some when I was in and agency. Wild T-0. But they had become very limited on doing compass rose. I think if I was tasked to do one I would have to re learn as we did so few and I just can’t get the brain to recall everything anymore. I got out in 2005. So not that long ago.
Magnesium?! Why on Earth...?
During more than 50 years, I had not heard of the Bowman Brain. When I broke in '72, the Kurta and trig tables were the standard in the field in my area. I only remember a Compucorp handheld that others were using. seemed clunky vs the HP35.
When the HP35 became available in late 1972, that changed everything. I had an HP55 with an external card reader. $400 in 1974.
The slide rule was a segment of a math class in junior high, but was never something I used in surveying.
You learn something every day, right?
JA, PLS, SoCal
I don't know if I've seen a slide rule before, I must have, but if I did I'm pretty sure I didn't know what I was looking at. I've seen a curta before but I didn't know that that's what they were called.