3 ms·

Maybe they focus the "old guy" rays I give off, but so do I. I have a small collection of slide rules, all normal sized linear types, which I still am fascinate

Maybe they focus the "old guy" rays I give off, but so do I. I have a small collection of slide rules, all normal sized linear types, which I still am fascinated with. They're all made between the 1940s and 1960s and aren't terribly rare but the care and precision that went into their manufacture is amazing given that they weren't terribly expensive back in the day. I especially like the one's made of bamboo. Not as much precision nor speed as a calculator or computer but always remember that we got to the moon on them.

jedimastert 6y ago
I also have a small collection. One is one I found in my grandfather's things. It was a small cheap one, but interesting to me was that it was from an era when computers just starting to supplant people (he worked on a room-sized computer who's job was to count carpool inventory for the army.) I also have one I got from an army-surplus store in a flea market that has various aerial photography calculations tools on the back.
yuubi 6y ago
Less precision, more speed than a digital calculator, in my experience (at least in high school physics class in the early 90s). Makes sense because the slide rule takes one precise movement per number but the digital calculator takes one movement per digit.
kens 6y ago
> always remember that we got to the moon on them. Well, there were also 5 computers (one analog) onboard the spacecraft, multiple powerful IBM System/360 mainframes computing trajectories on the ground, a Honeywell 1800 assembling code, a whole pile of Univac computers (1230, 494, 495) processing data, and RCA 110A computers for mission control (including one inside the launch platform under the rocket).
- sizzzzlerz 6y ago
  True, but my point was that the engineer's who designed the rockets and capsules and towers and just about everything else, including those computers, needed by the space program used their slide rules on a daily basis.

jedimastert 6y ago

I also have a small collection. One is one I found in my grandfather's things. It was a small cheap one, but interesting to me was that it was from an era when computers just starting to supplant people (he worked on a room-sized computer who's job was to count carpool inventory for the army.) I also have one I got from an army-surplus store in a flea market that has various aerial photography calculations tools on the back.

yuubi 6y ago

Less precision, more speed than a digital calculator, in my experience (at least in high school physics class in the early 90s). Makes sense because the slide rule takes one precise movement per number but the digital calculator takes one movement per digit.

kens 6y ago

> always remember that we got to the moon on them. Well, there were also 5 computers (one analog) onboard the spacecraft, multiple powerful IBM System/360 mainframes computing trajectories on the ground, a Honeywell 1800 assembling code, a whole pile of Univac computers (1230, 494, 495) processing data, and RCA 110A computers for mission control (including one inside the launch platform under the rocket).

sizzzzlerz 6y ago
True, but my point was that the engineer's who designed the rockets and capsules and towers and just about everything else, including those computers, needed by the space program used their slide rules on a daily basis.