Book: Solution of Railroad Problems Using the Slide Rule

I guess its time to dust off my K&E deci-trig rule.

@Scotie posted:

I guess its time to dust off my K&E deci-trig rule.

I had one of them.  No idea where it is.

I showed my son-in-law how to do a simple multiplication problem on my Pickett slide rule, and he was absolutely amazed that it was possible.

No one understands or studies logs any more (or math while I am ranting!).

I earned my engineering degree using a slide rule.  I have totally forgotten how to use it.  I sold mine many years ago to slide rule collectors.  NH Joe

I still have my Faber-Castell slip stick from high school back in 1961.

I used one in high-school math (when dinosaurs roamed the earth). Don't knock slide rules. They sent astronauts into space using calculations done on them.

I used a Pickett slide rule in the US Navy to perform fast, critical calculations and never went on duty without it. I still have it in a box of keepsakes.

And you had to understand/be aware of the "significant digits" issue. I remember when calculator first arrived and my students after measuring something with a wooden ruler would computer and answer to about eight decimal places and had trouble understanding why that just wasn't correct.

@Scotie posted:

And you had to understand/be aware of the "significant digits" issue. I remember when calculator first arrived and my students after measuring something with a wooden ruler would computer and answer to about eight decimal places and had trouble understanding why that just wasn't correct.

I remember 3 "sig figs"!

I came across my old slide rule within the past six months while digging through a box in the basement. Tried playing with it for a moment but, like NH Joe, I had forgotten how to use it.

Curt

For those who are filled with nostalgia to remember how to use  their slide rule to build their next layout......This is a fun site too: International Slide Rule Museum.

I still have my Post with leather case and instruction manual.

Unfortunately I lost the charging cord for my slide rule

It no longer works!

I got through years of engineering school using a Keuffel and Esser slide rule but haven't used it since then. I've been a computer user/programmer for almost sixty years but the slide rule remains on my desk as a reminder of the good old days.

MELGAR

In the Fall Semester, when I taught on section of our Intro to Engineering Design for Freshman, I always brought my slide rule in and showed the students how to use it. It was, however, often on Halloween when I wore a safety vest, hard hat and carried a slide rule and T-square on my belt!.

That's a very cool book!

My dad was a mechanical engineer, and lived by his slide rule. I remember him working at home every Saturday on the Expand-A-Way, poring over his blueprints, drawings and plans, slide rule in hand. I still have my high school K&E slide rule and instruction booklet. Haven't really looked at them in over half a century.

When I was a junior and senior in college, calculators were just coming out and a few had one. However because at that time they were pretty expensive the professors made us use a slide rule on tests. When my son was in high school he had to have a graphing calculator. Now having a computer is a requirement in both HS and college. We've come a long way!

Ken

But you do not have to worry about, " Batteries not included," with a slide re.

My K&E slide rule is packed away with my work stuff.......haven't used it since organic chemistry in 72-73......by the time I did my lab year in 84-85, I used a TRS 80 for calculations. I cannot part with it though I never use it....a fond talisman of an era gone forever!

Peter

I used a slide rule (Dietzgen) all through high-school and college - indeed it was an early birthday present from my parents when I started 9th grade.

   In college a lot of the engineering and science majors (myself included) would wear the slide rule case strapped to our belt.  It gave the  appearance of "packing" (and, in a sense we were ).  I still have mine and I've never forgotten how to use one although it has been decades since I last used it for anything.

  As for the comment on significant figures - how true and even more so today.  It is quite common to see an analysis performed with data good to just a single significant digit reported out to 3 or even 4 "significant" digits - or as my professors used to say - "empty precision."