I'll bet!

But if I picked up one today I'd have the same look of confusion.

https://www.sliderulemuseum.com/Circular.shtml

So a circular slider rule that fits in a shirt pocket is like a nearly foot long slide rule.

with the inscription, "Physics is Phun"

Throw in some mentions of instances where they can't tell time on an analog clock, or even recognize what an analog clock is, and us geezers can have a chuckle.

Now, take a young person out to the garage, flip the hood on a cherry '66 Mustang and tell them to change the alternator, or even the oil.

Watch their heads explode.

The sink won't drain? Damn, we gotta move.

There are clocks at every train platform.

(I know that sounds sort of disgusting....)

Having one or two of those hanging off your belt along with 6 pens in a pocket protector on your shirt. Maybe a beanie cap, too. Wonder why I never got any dates.

Otherwise, I was thinking short-wave set.

My first was a "Build it yourself" Lafayette Explor-Air. Apparently there was a Lafayette store in Boston, because Dad picked up the kit and soldering iron for me.

Only 4 bands, though!





The tuning capacitor was "standoff-ish"

I had a larger Deci-lon. Kept the two smaller ones. I keep only a few reminders of the good old days, though the IMSAI chassis and the boxes of S-100 cards remain.

I never advanced much in radio beyond a little Hallicrafters. 5 tube series-filament design. The equipment was more exciting than the programs or ham conversations (meaning no disrespect to ham radio operators). It's just that I got enough geek in my life and recalling the time I spent with classical music instead (and great audio gear!) my life was really enriched by that experience. I had intended to design and build an electronic piano, but by the time I had any spending money, such things were available, like the old Roland FP-1, currently needing repairs now and then as levers break. (cross my fingers, epoxy is holding, but I move repaired key levers to the top keys, where they get no usage). Anyway, I always had the baby grand, gift of my wonderful parents, and got a Clavinova to replace the Roland before it disintegrates.

I got my first electronic piano when my wife was working evening and night shifts, so that I could play during the day using headphones. I told her about this recently and she didn't know why I did it, proving that it worked.

I have an 80's or so Kenwood amp, but it has reached the stage where capacitors are getting old (it has a constant hum) and it's going to be a bunch of work to restore. And these days, decent, if not great amps are $10 in the thrift store. Most of audio quality is in the speakers (or not) and I got 80's Klipsch Heresy speakers, also from the thrift store, about as good as hitting the lottery, and more likely (since I already won).

Nice kit! I didn't dabble too much in those types of electronics after I experienced a body-throwing event with a capacitor. Very glad when transistors made their appearance.

Line cord means unplug and wait.
And get out the voltmeter anyway.

Biggest project was a Heathkit Oscilloscope (well, before all the S-100 computer gear), I asked a friend to straighten out the mistakes I made. Computer gear was simpler, with PC boards and sockets. Wafer switches were head-scratchers.

(They wouldn't make it past Sister Mary Janice's first grade class.)

The atomic bomb was created using slide rules. Also, most everything used by all branches of all the militaries in WW2. Those things are deadly.

Artillery soldiers had their own.
Board foot calculators for the lumber industry.
I think surveyors had their own as well.

Slide rules replaced various tables, also.
I remember learning to use a slide rule to look up sines etc. instead of the tables in the back of my trig book. Input and answers were limited to three significant digits.

Best regards,
Sorghum Crow

After the explosion, the ground crew in Houston have to calculate whether Lovell's got the navigational data right before they shut down the onboard computer.

Five guys pulled out slide rules simultaneously, and the entire audience cracked up laughing.

Also love Hidden Figures. Black female mathematicians!

Not car chases, explosions, big tits or bigger guns.

Refreshing!

but the slide rule works just find when the power is out!

The tickets were about $3 each I think... anyway we all wore our NASA t-shirts and ID badges... and had a great time.
A FEW of the group actually started as young engineers during Apollo and had met the actual people being portrayed on the screen including the astronauts ( some of the astronaut training was done at our NASA facility ).

Great movie.

We were still using slide rules then. Calculators were beyond the means of most high school students.

I've been on the internet since the late 'seventies and have built dozens of computers since, mostly out of other people's e-waste.

These days I look at all the shiny new computers, tablets, cell phones, video games, etc. at Best Buy or wherever and think, What a load of shit...

All of them. Tell the youngsters that. They won't believe you. Show them photos of all those early pioneers, as they are today.

I'm an example: I started doing programming with a class in college in 1963. Haven't stopped since.

Grandpa did it, kids.

Programs in FORTRAN were coded on punch cards. Then, they were compiled, creating a new, larger card deck, which could be run on the mainframe. If it ran. Usually that took some debugging.

American Management Association in Saranac Lake, NY around 1958. Next got a class in IBM360 BAL around 1965. Been downhill ever since - and still loving it.

They were of course a physical embodiment of understanding how logarithmic and exponential functions worked.

Many of the great scientific and engineering triumphs of the transcendent 20th century involved people using slide rules.

They used to make very specialized versions, for example, slide rules manufactured with materials with low thermal expansion.

Look it up. Excellent verse for this situation.

Vyagghapajja Sutta — Buddha: “These four conditions, conducive to a householder’s happiness…”

https://buddhaweekly.com/vyagghapajja-sutta-buddha-these-four-conditions-conducive-to-a-householders-happiness-buddha-teaches-the-lay-followers/


“The accomplishment of persistent effort, the accomplishment of watchfulness, good friendship and balanced livelihood".

This is too much. I love it. (ancient text, quoted almost in its entirety)

What is the accomplishment of persistent effort?

“Herein, Vyagghapajja, by whatsoever activity a householder earns his living, whether by farming, by trading, by rearing cattle, by archery, by service under the king, or by any other kind of craft — at that he becomes skillful and is not lazy. He is endowed with the power of discernment as to the proper ways and means; he is able to carry out and allocate (duties). This is called the accomplishment of persistent effort.

“What is the accomplishment of watchfulness?

“Herein, Vyagghapajja, whatsoever wealth a householder is in possession of, obtained by dint of effort, collected by strength of arm, by the sweat of his brow, justly acquired by right means — such he husbands well by guarding and watching so that kings would not seize it, thieves would not steal it, fire would not burn it, water would not carry it away, nor ill-disposed heirs remove it. This is the accomplishment of watchfulness.

“What is good friendship?

“Herein, Vyagghapajja, in whatsoever village or market town a householder dwells, he associates, converses, engages in discussions with householders or householders’ sons, whether young and highly cultured or old and highly cultured, full of faith (saddha),[4] full of virtue (síla), full of charity (caga), full of wisdom (paññá). He acts in accordance with the faith of the faithful, with the virtue of the virtuous, with the charity of the charitable, with the wisdom of the wise. This is called good friendship.

“What is balanced livelihood?

“Herein, Vyagghapajja, a householder knowing his income and expenses leads a balanced life, neither extravagant nor miserly, knowing that thus his income will stand in excess of his expenses, but not his expenses in excess of his income.

“Just as the goldsmith,[5] or an apprentice of his, knows, on holding up a balance, that by so much it has dipped down, by so much it has tilted up; even so a householder, knowing his income and expenses leads a balanced life, neither extravagant nor miserly, knowing that thus his income will stand in excess of his expenses, but not his expenses in excess of his income.

“If, Vyagghapajja, a householder with little income were to lead an extravagant life, there would be those who say — ‘This person enjoys his property like one who eats wood-apple.'[6] If, Vyagghapajja, a householder with a large income were to lead a wretched life, there would be those who say — ‘This person will die like a starveling.’

“The wealth thus amassed, Vyagghapajja, has four sources of destruction:

“(i) Debauchery, (ii) drunkenness, (iii) gambling, (iv) friendship, companionship and intimacy with evil-doers.

“Just as in the case of a great tank with four inlets and outlets, if a man should close the inlets and open the outlets and there should be no adequate rainfall, decrease of water is to be expected in that tank, and not an increase; even so there are four sources for the destruction of amassed wealth — debauchery, drunkenness, gambling, and friendship, companionship and intimacy with evil-doers.

“There are four sources for the increase of amassed wealth: (i) abstinence from debauchery, (ii) abstinence from drunkenness, (iii) non- indulgence in gambling, (iv) friendship, companionship and intimacy with the good.

“Just as in the case of a great tank with four inlets and four outlets, if a person were to open the inlets and close the outlets, and there should also be adequate rainfall, an increase in water is certainly to be expected in that tank and not a decrease, even so these four conditions are the sources of increase of amassed wealth.

“These four conditions, Vyagghapajja, are conducive to a householder’s weal and happiness in this very life.

(has been updated in later sutras)

LOOKS LIKE SOME PEOPLE NEED THIS A LOT. 🪷

Wouldn't it possibly be of more benefit to others if it was posted in the Religion Forum?

https://democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1218

Doesn't it seem possible that more people would read it there? Just a thought. ❤️

as well as the standard slide ruler. The circular slide ruler fit in my shirt pocket and when I pulled it out to use people would look at me confused. Once you got past it being circular it was easy to use. I haven’t used a slide ruler in decades and I’d probably have to go to YouTube to learn how to use it.

Still have mine from when I was in college.
Didn't need a big one. Had some physics classes and I sucked at math.

Broke the glass slider thingy right after I got it.

She exclaimed "I don't know how to use it".

Haven't touched it since then. Soubt I could use it. Fortunately, mine came with a little instruction book.

The SR-71 was designed using slide rules.

I transisioned from the slide rule to the calculator in my 3 year of college. My calculator could do square roots. That was handy. We had one guy who had a $400 HP machine. Most of the rest of us had Texas Instruments.

Just because it's old tech doesn't mean it won't work.

It wasn't over computers per se, but about social media, and my not having any accounts. (Except for a couple discussion boards, which I think are quite different.)
It came up that X number of people had no social media presence and it's a tiny fraction and so on. I couldn't be properly informed and blah, blah, blah.
I asked "What percentage of the population is that?"
Answer; "I don't know, do you have a calculator?"
I said "I am my calculator. The answer is (just for a number) 6.82%"
Then I handed them a calculator. They got 6.82%.
Conversation over.

My husband's niece threw one of her favorite blouses in the garbage just because it lost a button. She was amazed when I saved the blouse by replacing the buttons with a new set. She was 22.

that beat any ease with a PC

Pocket sized calculators? Sure. The ones that could do the simpler stuff. During high school, I got the TI-83.

In fact, I still have mine, although I never use it. It brought a chuckle, though, when I found it in with my old desk stuff. It brought kind of a comfortable feeling!