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When Slide Rules Ruled (2006) (rus.ec)
1 point by dredmorbius on Feb 23, 2020 | hide | past | favorite | 1 comment



I used to love my 'slip-stick' back as a uni student. However those long thin slide-rules were not as convenient to use as the circular slide-rules I later used as a pilot in training.

The biggest drawback to the use of a slide-rule was that you were working with significant digits only, and you had to mentally keep track of what the units and the order of magnitude were. Electronic calculators kept track of the decimal point's position for you, at least.

"Let's see now. Is '4.62' equal to 4.62 amps, 46,200 yards, or 0.0462 millimeters?"




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