I remember you had to put it together.
I never got the hang of it though. Everytime I inputted something...It came back 42.
Posted on 08/31/2004 10:04:24 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Jerry Ross, along with about 200 other Purdue University alumni, have added their slide rules to a new exhibit at their alma mater that testifies to the past mathematical prowess of these computational devices.
The permanent display, on the first floor of the university’s Potter Engineering Center, houses the pre-digital analytical marvels, some of which were made in the 19th century and range in length from a few inches to seven feet.
"There was a point in time when the slide rule was king," said James Alleman, a professor of civil engineering who began collecting the slide rules from alumni 15 years ago. "During a period of about 400 years, anything anybody built that was of any magnitude would have required a slide rule."
Then, in the early 1970s Hewlett Packard came out with the first commercial calculator, the HP-35, signaling an end to the slide rule’s dominance in scientific computing.
Purdue alumnus and retired civil engineering professor Robert Miles fondly recalls the calculator’s debut.
"We bought 10 HP-35s and had six installed in the civil engineering structures lab," said Miles, who helped design the display and paid for its construction. "Those six calculators were mysteriously missing within about two weeks, even though they were chained down."
Although calculators revolutionized the world of computation for engineers, scientists and students, they also introduced a disturbing educational trend.
"Many people who push the buttons on calculators don’t really know what the numbers mean, while on a slide rule you had to analyze where the decimal point went, and you had to better understand the mathematics," said Miles, who taught civil engineering at Purdue for 40 years, retiring in 1990. He also holds a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in civil engineering from Purdue.
"A slide rule gives you an amazing amount of computational ability, and people today don’t even remember what these things are capable of doing," Miles said.
Alleman said he began collecting the slide rules out of personal interest and for a display to coincide with civil engineering’s centennial celebration in 1987. The new glass-enclosed wall exhibit includes slide rules from four astronauts who are Purdue alumni: Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon; Ross, who has logged more space-walking hours than any other astronaut; Richard Covey and Roy Bridges. Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon and also a Purdue alumnus, has promised to send his slide rule, as well.
"There are a lot of human stories here," Alleman said. "If these slide rules could talk – because of all the alumni who donated these things – I am sure they would each tell remarkable stories about projects they were used on."
The display, which is roughly 6 feet high and 12 feet long, "is sort of a history of slide rules," he said.
"Our gigantic 7-foot-long slide rules really catch your eye, and then as you get up close the display kind of pulls you in with the story that it tells," Alleman said.
The exhibit is arranged in a series of panels about the history of slide rules, recounting how English scientists developed the devices. It all began in 1614, when Scottish mathematician John Napier discovered the logarithm, with which multiplication and division could then be completed using addition and subtraction. Six years later, English mathematician Edmund Gunter created a number line in which the positions of numbers were proportional to their logarithms, and in 1632 fellow countryman William Oughtred used Gunter’s approach to invent the first slide rule.
The display includes cylindrical slide rules and slide rules made of metal, wood, bamboo, paper and plastic.
The largest slide rules were used in classes to teach students how to use them, Miles said.
"Taking a course to learn how to use a slide rule was mandatory at one time," he said. "And from then on you used it for the rest of your academic career."
;-)
D'OH!
Just do it in a mirror.
Sam Publiuski
I have wanted a Curta calculator for 45 yrs.
http://home.teleport.com/~gregsa/curta/
How old is yours? Mine dates from 1947, let's see, that must be 57 years - - I still use it once in a while. For some reason while I was in school I picked up a spare indicator assembly (what was that thing called anyway?) and for a while had two of them on the rule. No real advantage, but it really made people think I was a young genius at calculations.
Agreed. The HP48 is just too convenient for me, though.
Sales crashed, and production virtually ceased in the early '70s. But old habits die hard, so people continued to use slide rules for a while. The early calculators were expensive, so lots of students stayed with what they already owned. As did their teachers. But not for long.
Second: Then, in the early 1970s Hewlett Packard came out with the first commercial calculator, the HP-35, signaling an end to the slide rule’s dominance in scientific computing.
Is this accurate? I have this haunting feeling that Sinclair was first (or maybe they were just much cheaper.)
HP wasn't the first. But theirs was the first really functional, affordable, and thus wildly successful calculator. Or so I believe. I'm not well informed about the early history of calculators. You can check this out: The Museum of HP Calculators. They have a link on the HP-35.
There was a lot of competition between HP and TI. HP used the Reverse Polish notation whereas TI followed the more common practice used in all cheap 4-function calculators.
There was a story that the CEO of TI (anyone who worked there will remember his name) once caught an employee using an HP calculator. He did the "hurl" maneuver with the poor guy's private property too.
(I don't recognize half of the constants or formula I wrote on the back, sigh ...)
Just an aside to this article. Both the first and last man to set foot on the moon (Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan) were Purdue grads.
I remember them. I sold them a few old HP calculators and modules when I retired.
My fav at the time was the Ti SR-50 :-)
Starving student. I so wanted an Hp-65!!!
Have an Hp-65 now as a keepsake.
I remember you had to put it together.
I never got the hang of it though. Everytime I inputted something...It came back 42.
Just a note that Phillip Pullman's trilogy, though admittedly well written, is very against religion, and, according to the author himself, written to be an "anti-Narnia". Parents especially need to be aware of this as they are quite popular with librarians who run Young Adult book discussion groups, and also some English teachers.
Yes, I have read them, yes they are mostly good writing, no, I'm not saying they should go unread. People do need to be aware of an author's intentions, though, and I fear Christian conservatives have let these books go under the radar, so preoccupied they have been with Harry Potter; they may not be aware of the dangers contained within them to children ill-prepared to deal with the anti-God premise so heavily emphasized.
I haven't finished and can't judge the anti-God perspective. There is more than a bit of anti-church perspective, however most of this is related to practices which the church has abandoned. I'll see when I finish.
There is an interesting web site (bridgetothestars.net) that has a parody interview with a hollywood producer planning a movie of the series.
Thanks for the ping!
Yes, 42 is the answer, but what question were you asking it? (My apologies if you've never read the Hitchhikers' Guide Trilogy)
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