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I had a computer ... "me", with a slide rule. :)

Well said ...

Reply to
Swingman
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Gosh, I need to go back--I think I forgot to do something! : )

Reply to
Bill

--------------------------------------------- Brings to mind Oberlin College, a liberal arts school located in Oberlin, Oh, about 40 miles SW of Cleveland.

Am convinced the curriculum is designed to teach you how to survive grad school an obtain a PhD.

Must be working since more than a few Chairman of the Board, CEO types, have graduated from Oberlin.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

I learned that I do best to just get a good text and work through it.

There used to be a schaum's outline on analytic geometry--been out of print for 20 years though.

Reply to
J. Clarke

They're becoming forgotten. Slide rules put man on the moon. Back in HS and college, the classes like Physics and Chem had a half bushel basket by the door with school slide rules for the kids without their own.

Reply to
Nonny

Same mathematical functions as a computer, but these days the computer is _much_ faster.

That wasn't always the case, even with electronic digital computers.

When I was in the Army we routinely beat "Freddie" FADAC (Field Artillery Digital Automatic Computer) with our slide rules in the Fire Direction Centers ... in combat we seldom used "Freddie" to actually fire missions, just to check our slide rule results, if we didn't have to wait on it.

It wasn't a matter of arithmetic trust, FADAC was just too damn slow.

Reply to
Swingman

---------------------------------------- Reminds me of my state PE exams.

Knew they gave a lot of partial credit and you needed an 80 to pass.

During a 2 day exam, never completely solved a math question.

Posted a note at the top of every answer sheet that went something like this:

  • = Plug in values and turn crank.

Would set up the equations to solve a problem, then it was "*" time.

I passed the exams.

After all, I wasn't there to take a slide rule exam, but rather engineering exams.

One guy, an older gentleman, pulled out his drafting board, some triangles, a scale and provided graphical solutions.

Have no idea if he passed the exams.

Back then, computers were big clunkers that were kept in huge air-conditioned rooms.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

And it was inconcievable to those who ran them that micros were ever going to achieve that kind of performance. Now we bitch about how slow our machine is when it is several times faster than an '80s supercomputer.

Reply to
J. Clarke

When I was in High School in the late 50's I paid 25 dollars for a cheap slide rule. There was no way I could have afforded the expensive ones.

Today when you go to flea markets or antique stores you can pick up the most expensive for 5 or 10 dollars/ with case.

My favorite slide rule was the circular slide rule. For some spectra conversion in IR or UV you could make the calculation on the circular slide rule faster that any calculator today.

Reply to
Keith Nuttle

------------------------------------------ My Post, log-log-desi-trig complete with carrying case was less than $15 when I got it while still in high school.

Had several inverse as well as folded scales which allowed you to fly thru the calculations.

Never did figure out how to use the "pencil & eraser" functioin.

Still have that little beauty someplace.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

Got one of my Dad's cast off K&E's in HS, but don't remember the model. You're right, I think I paid $20+ for the one I used in college, but damn that was expensive!

... that's back when I routinely found it necessary to cash bank "counter drafts" (remember those?) for 50 cents at the student center two or three times a week.

Reply to
Swingman

Do you remember your first electronic calculator? I got a TI-30 (IIRC) when I went back to school briefly after the service. We weren't even allowed to bring them to class, much less take a test with it.

Reply to
Swingman

--------------------------------------- I got mine about the same time as I got a hell of a big raise.

Minimum wage went from $0.50/hour to $0.75/hour.

Damn, I was in the high cotton.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

--------------------------------------------

1970-71 vintage.

Mine was a desk top, plug in, Commodore with 4 functions (Add, subtract, multiply, divide)

Special sale for $119 + tax.

Such a deal................

A few weeks later it was $99.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

$4/day ... worked 7 days a week and didn't know what to do with all that money!

Reply to
Swingman

TI-30? That is only about 20 years old. The electronic calculator I am talking about was bought in 1970. It had a big nixy(sp?) display and was the size of a typewriter. It was significantly better that the old mechanical one. It did X / + - and had 12 rows of 10 keys in each row. Took several seconds to do simply + and - calculations and longer to do X and /.

Reply to
Keith Nuttle

Wow, that sounds a lot like my experience with the old Curta calculator. IT got me through the exams just fine.

Reply to
Nonny

I once had a student breathlessly tell me how his Dad used a sliderule for so many math calculations, including addition and subtraction. I just smiled and walked away.

Reply to
Nonny

HP gave me a 35 for my work on the 80. That was a long time ago.

Reply to
Nonny

Monroe 990 with 16 digit display. The Frieden was better, with its initial 3-level version of RPN, but who woulda' thunk it?

Reply to
Nonny

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