17 ms·
There are some things that a slide rule is superior for -- one item I can think of is visualizing an arbitrary range of fractional values. For example, lets sa
by derekp7 5y ago
There are some things that a slide rule is superior for -- one item I can think of is visualizing an arbitrary range of fractional values. For example, lets say you need a capacitor and a resistor with values in a particular ratio. Any pair will work in your given circuit (within reason), as long as that ratio is maintained. You have a drawer full of various resistors and another of capacitors, and need to find a pair that will work. So you set your slide rule to that fraction (let's say 1.7 / 3.3), and you can then pull up any resistor and determine which size capacitor can be used by glancing at the slide rule. (Of course you still have to keep track of the magnitudes in your head, but being in the habit of that makes you a better engineer anyway).
- hilbert42 5y ago"There are some things that a slide rule is superior for -- one item I can think of is visualizing an arbitrary range of fractional values." Exactly, similar to the way log scales make visualizing a range of results across the slide rule no matter what one is doing. Similarly, I have a number of good digital multimeters but I also keep several analog AVO meters, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avometer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avometer, to give me a sense of proportion if I'm adjusting something (nulling a discriminator etc.).
- JKCalhoun 5y agoI implemented Ohm's Law as you describe for an iOS App some years back [1]. Tried also to figure out how to do it in Javascript (still learning, love it if someone could really make it nice for the rest of us to use) [2]. [1] Perfboard (5th screenshot shows it): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/perfboard/id46595187 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/perfboard/id46595187 [2] SlideRule.js: https://github.com/EngineersNeedArt/SlideRule https://github.com/EngineersNeedArt/SlideRule