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Joined: Oct 2000
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They let me use a slide rule ... am I dating myself I remember a heavy emphasis on being able to show work. There's so much dependence on technology today that 'thinking' may soon be a lost art.
Bill
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Joined: Jul 2004
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Once we got into high school math your "work" was more about the formulas you used or the thought process than the actual arithmetic. With a slide rule it is hard to get much under +/- 10% tho. At least with the cheap one I had and you still had to get the decimal point in the right place. That was usually the weak part in my process. When I got in the Navy school, (65) they were still pencil and paper. I never used a slide rule again. A few years later a 4 banger calculator was under $100 and I got one. (~72)
Greg Fretwell
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Joined: Apr 2002
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I never had or used a slide rule. Calculators were not allowed thru high school/trade school (64)
Basically, pencil and paper, and quite a lot in my head. That set off a few teachers, as I had the answers, but could not show the work. They showed me how to show the work!!
Today, I use the adding machine on my desk occasionally, but most of the time I do it manually. I like numbers!!
John
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Joined: Jul 2002
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Greg, You're definitely one up on me. I tried to work out how to use a slide rule, it made no sense at all. This was obviously back before we had things like the Internet to learn such things and I'd never really given it a second thought since. Wasn't the slide rule the "be-all and have all" for the young engineers of the day, often worn as a fashion statement? I can't think who would do that, but there you go, I asked the question. John, One thing needs to be said here, New Zealand back then, was a closed-minded place, we didn't get calculators in schools until 1987?, if you wanted to buy one off the shelf, they were a luxury item and taxed as one.
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Joined: Dec 2002
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I dispute that you couldn't get closer than five or ten percent. Although it was necessary to interpolate between the marked graduations, 1 to 5 percent should be attainable. However the need to place the decimal point by mental arithmetic opened up the possibility for major miscalculations. At engineering college we used to refer to them as "guessing sticks". I still have mine, and showed it to my teenage granddaughter who was totally bewildered by the principle. Personally I was OK with straightforward arithmetic but when it came to logarithms my brain went into overload. - Also with calculus buts that's another story. It never actually mattered though, because lots of engineering jobs demand organisational and communication skills rather than mathematical ones. They don't tell you that at college.
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Joined: Dec 2002
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There's so much dependence on technology today that 'thinking' may soon be a lost art.
That's also true in management processes. Project management software!! Put lies in and get lies out. Shortly before I retired I had an argument with a project manager when I ended up saying " I don't care what your computer game says, If you haven't ordered the materials yet you don't want the workpeople next month". Needless to say there was no happy outcome, the project was snafu and I was just glad retirement was close.
Last edited by Trumpy; 03/29/20 10:02 PM. Reason: Fixed quote tags
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Joined: Jul 2004
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Geoff, I bet you had a better slide rule than I did. They could get quite fancy. Mine was a pretty rudimentary thing with a few scales and not the best printing but it would still do most of the stuff in High School. I don't think I had all of the trig stuff that a better slide rule had. (sine, cosine etc) Once I saw my first scientific calculator, it was clear things would never be the same. I saw guys doing stuff that we were doing on a mainframe in Fortran and it was in the palm of his hand (but cost as much as my car). Then they were a couple hundred bucks and they were everywhere. I paid about 30 for the one I have a number of years ago. If you look at the Windows calculator select view and select the scientific option you have a real nice one.
Greg Fretwell
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Joined: Jul 2002
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If you look at the Windows calculator select view and select the scientific option you have a real nice one. Call me dumb or whatever, but I didn't know that this existed until quite recently and I mean like last year! I accidentally found out that the iPhone also has a scientific calculator, if you tilt the phone horizontally when the Calculator app is open, it gives you a few extra functions. I suspect that I'm also the last person to know this as well.
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Joined: Jul 2004
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I never used the windows calculator until I got a keyboard that had the calculator key. It popped up by accident one day and I decided it was cool. Then I found the other functions, again by accident.
Greg Fretwell
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Joined: Apr 2002
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Trumpy:
No, you are not the last one. After reading the above comments, I opened calc in my phone!!
Surprise when the grandkids ask...."you didn't know that"
John
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Joined: April 2002
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