Adding up

Hands up if you remember and used the humble Slide Rule. 

Yes, I thought so...

Well in years gone by I used to use the unusual rotary slide rule pictured below to carry out my engineering calculations at college. It seems such a prehistoric method of calculation, vague and mechanical. Well let me tell you, this was a whole lot better than using the despised book of Log Tables.







You did need to think about your calculation a great deal however. The slide rule would point to six and a bit. Now you had to ask yourself, is that six point two, sixty two or six thousand two hundred? The Slide rule would give you no hints, you had to work out a rough result in your head and refine it with the slide rule.


Just think how it would be if calculators operated on similar principles these days...



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