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Oh Slide rules, how I love 'em

But what picture shows the kids? I only saw a picture of an in-use calculation on a navigational chart.

Apollo 13 was the film that revived the slide rule craze. But slide rules were a part of any mathematical life prior to the advent of the TI pocket calculator.

There was a Karftwerk song that went "I'm the operator of my pocket calculator" in the new wave music days of the '80's anyone remember?

I joined the group and posted the following in response to a post from Edward Anderson in which he speaks of the "Demise of the Slide Rule" -- pure bunk and as erroneous as a so-called "Super Moon."

Edward Anderson is erroneous

Simply put the Slide Rule is only as valid and accurate as the computer using it.

Remember that the human brain is more powerful and contains more storage capacity than any Cray or electronic computer ever did or will.

The only thing that will slow the functioning of a human brain is catastrophic injury to it, and that includes stroke or blunt force trauma. Death ultimately disables the brain and causes it to return to the dust from which it was created.

In the days when a slide rule was the only means of solving a complex math problem, the person performing the calculation was known as the "Computor"

consider this definition of "Computor" from The Free Dictionary website by Farlex:

com•put•er (km-pytr)
n.
1. A device that computes, especially a programmable electronic machine that performs high-speed mathematical or logical operations or that assembles, stores, correlates, or otherwise processes information.
2. One who computes.

Note the spelling, -er instead of -or.

-or denotes the human element.

-er denotes a thing.

Slide Rules might no longer be part of the Zeitgeist or Weltanshauung but the value as a tool which does not require electricity in order to operate speaks volumes to a mechanical Computer that is prone to failure.

And I know, I am still recovering from a catastrophic system failure last week. Both my hard drives simply shut down and reformatted themselves. And I have been trying to recoup my losses (word, PDF, video and Mathematica files) since. Thank God for back-ups on CD-ROM's and SSD's!

So don't count the Slide Rule down and out yet, I am more likely to become obsolete long before the Slide Rule does.

Thanks,

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