Come the Apocalypse, you can extract square roots *and* beat off Zombies with it

[major_clanger]

ThinkGeek are selling slide rules! In fact, since they claim (and are probably right) that nobody makes them any more, they've specially commissioned some, so this is the only way to buy a brand-new slide rule.

I've already got mine, although it's a much smaller 6" version from around about 35 years ago. The only time I've ever really used it was when waistcoatmark held a fancy dress party with the theme "come as an extra from a famous movie." I went in buttoned-up white short-sleeve shirt, black trousers, black tie and thick glasses, as Random Mission Controller from Apollo 13, and to complete the ensemble had a pocket full of pens plus my slide rule. One young lady was curious as to what this object was, so I demonstrated how you could multiply two numbers with it.

She freaked out. I mean, really. In her mind, there were two ways to do that: with a calculator, or by long multiplication. As a science graduate, she instinctively recoiled at the idea that a fundamentally digital problem could be solved by an analogue mechanism! I soon had a small crowd of twentysomething geeks marvelling at the magic powers of sliding bits of plastic.

As for their other new products, I'm afraid this is causing serious lust. I'm afraid I have a severe weakness for any combination of black or camo ballistic nylon and lots of pockets.

Comments

[addict-yin.livejournal.com]

Ha! As a twentysomething geek, I've long since obtained a slide rule.

[cdave]

I haven't, and think I'd be similarly impressed.

I wonder if this could be expanded into a programme item?

"What we forgot to remember." (to nick a Radio 4 title)
or
"So, you're stuck in the past, what now?"

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

So you go to a party and freak out a young lady with your 6" sliding rod. Well I never!

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Real men have 12 inchers!

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

It's not the size that's important, it's what you do with it :-)

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

And whether you can remember how to do it in the exam when the pressure is on.

[non-trivial.livejournal.com]

I really like the retro packaging on the thinkgeek slide rule. I'm not sure I need another one though - I have two, a 1940s K&E mahogany one and a 1970s plastic one. I must confess though I don't use them enough to be at all handy with them - I have to re-read the instructions every time.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

On another matter, are you still coming to the Tun tomorrow? If so, I'll bring those copies of Air Power Review you were interested in.

[non-trivial.livejournal.com]

I should be popping by, although I won't be hanging around long, as I have a dissertation due in on Monday! What time were you planning to be there for?

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

I will be there for 7. I could be there a bit earlier (say 6.30) if that would be more convenient for you.

[non-trivial.livejournal.com]

No, 7 sounds fine. Thanks again!

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

I did my Common Entrance mocks (in 1988) with a slide-rule, because my grandfather had just given me his, and calculators were disallowed whilst nobody had bothered banning slide rules or log tables. I did surprisingly badly.

But I'm a number theorist at heart, and want exact arithmetic; no more than 25 bits in your doubles if you want multiplies to come out right ...

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

> calculators were disallowed whilst nobody had bothered banning slide rules or log tables

LOL.

:-)

[akicif.livejournal.com]

Dunno if that's what it was: we were allowed - nay, encouraged - to use slide rules and/or 4-figure logbooks for the maths CE exams I did between 1970 and 1972 (we started early on mocks in those days).

[del-c.livejournal.com]

A science graduate who doesn't understand that the logarithm of a product is the sum of the logarithms? Where did she graduate from?

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Intellectually she understood that. It was just that all her life she'd seen multiplication as something done either by arithmetic or by a box that, somewhere inside it, was doing arithmetic.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

I would assume Oxford... :-)

[gummitch.livejournal.com]

I've still got my 12-incher, somewhere. I'd hate to think that someone had thrown it out, but a couple of office moves ago someone here turned up a 36-incher!

Re: For very BIG sums!

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

A compact solution to the problem of making long (and so accurate) slide rules was the cylindrical slide rule, which could have scales an effective 41 foot long!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I've still got my slide rule...

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

I've still got a circular one which I actually used at university (back in the dark ages before Mr Sinclair made calculators affordable) - with useful unit conversion scales on the back. Don't ask me whether I remember how to use it, though...