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To: Condor51

Nobody under 40 knows what a slide rule is.

I would've thought the same thing but . . .

Maybe six months or so ago, Scientific American ran an article by Cliff Stoll on the history of the slide rule where he effectively said the same thing - the slide rule has gone the way of the dodo bird. A couple of issues ago, a mid-twenties Marine First Lieutenant Firing Officer in Fallujah wrote in saying that they're still using slide rules to check the solutions provided by their $40,000 targeting computer as well as a failsafe backup.

The slide rule will never die.


18 posted on 09/05/2006 7:25:44 AM PDT by redwhit
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To: redwhit

Slide Rules for us seasoned engineers were also called "slipsticks."


24 posted on 09/05/2006 8:39:53 AM PDT by TexasAggie65
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To: redwhit

I keep one in my office, and use it occasionally too. I get some funny looks from some of the other engineers, but sometimes it is faster than a calculator and gives me all of the precision I need.


50 posted on 09/06/2006 3:03:57 AM PDT by P8riot ("You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone." - Al Capone)
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