While I congratulate you on your interest in knowing how the numbers actually
work and the skills you're acquiring in using the sliderule for this, I think
you need to look at automating this task. My thinking behind this is that you
don't want to come to look at the task as "oh no not again" and come to look at
the sliderule with loathing.

Use the mundane tools (Excel) for the mundane, repetitive, tasks and keep the
excitement in your relationship with your sliderule. :-)

I suspect that it is this repetitive use that was the cause of us old-timers
jumping so quickly away from sliderules when other tools became available. It
wasn't that we needed extra precision or extra speed for one-off calculations.

Dave S

----- Original Message -----
From: solveg2718
To: slideruleforum@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 2:08 AM
Subject: [Slide Rule Forum] Calculator-lessness


Hello,

In a year I will complete (undergrad) degrees in math and
physics; eventually I will get a phd in applied math. This semester
I have thrown away my calculator and started using only the
sliderule to crunch my numbers. (I have a big linear aluminum one
from Pickett). This is an arduous task since I am in a physics lab
which requires me to find the mean, standard deviation, etc., of
>100 numbers per week. A number of physicists my parents' age
believe that the benefits of not using a calculator--i.e., your
number sense is sharper--are worth the extra time it takes to crunch
all your numbers by hand, with the slide rule. I have provisionally
bought into this theory.

And it takes a LOT of time. I guess I am posting because I
wonder if I am the only person on earth who is trying to do this,
and whether it is really worth it. It takes hours and hours to
compute values that would take about 25 minutes to obtain with a
spreadsheet. Is it possible to reach a point where you can compute
numbers on the sliderule almost as fast as you could with a
calculator? How long does it take to acquire that skill? I wonder
whether I am really doing a good thing or just spending a lot of
time on diminishing returns, motivated by some sort of romantic
fantasy.

At any rate I appreciate knowing how the thing works since it is an
incredibly elegant piece of work.

Thanks and any advice is appreciated

Erica






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