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Re: On slide rule
From: Htom Trites
Date: 2023 Mar 15, 15:59 -0700
From: Htom Trites
Date: 2023 Mar 15, 15:59 -0700
I'm late to the conversation, but did teach slide rule in the 1960s.
Straight rules are faster. Much faster, because you can use both hands to move the three moving parts. Circulars did not stack well in a pile of books on your desk, and the inner scales were not nearly as accurate (just too short.) Small ones did fit well in a shirt pocket, but in class you needed all of the scales to have 3-4 digit accuracy. (Well, chemists.) Straight rules were better bookmarks, and easier to find in a desk mess. And cheaper, usually.
