Weapon of Math Instruction

[palani]

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/MechanixIllustrated/2-1959/slide_rule_watch.jpg

[crimethink]

Currently deployed in the field by the al-Gebra Movement?

[Hatha Sunahara]

I don't see any point for this device, nor do i assume that there is any sizable market for the device. My father was an engineer who used a slide rule most of his professional life. I can remember in the early 1970's I bought him a Texas Instruments calculator and he promptly put the slide rule in his drawer and never took it out again. Just about all the engineers of his generation that I knew regard the slide rule as a useful, but obsolete relic that they are glad has been replaced by more modern technology. The only use I can think for a slide rule now (either a traditional one or one on a watch like this one) is as a calculator in the complete absence of batteries. Anyone contemplating buying this watch/slide rule as a gift for their favorite geek should expect that it would only be used as a watch, so get your geek a really good watch, and forget about the slide rule. Most especially if your geek has a cell phone (there's an app for that) in which case he wouldn't really need a watch either.).


Hatha

[BrewTech]

I don't see any point for this device, nor do i assume that there is any sizable market for the device. My father was an engineer who used a slide rule most of his professional life. I can remember in the early 1970's I bought him a Texas Instruments calculator and he promptly put the slide rule in his drawer and never took it out again. Just about all the engineers of his generation that I knew regard the slide rule as a useful, but obsolete relic that they are glad has been replaced by more modern technology. The only use I can think for a slide rule now (either a traditional one or one on a watch like this one) is as a calculator in the complete absence of batteries. Anyone contemplating buying this watch/slide rule as a gift for their favorite geek should expect that it would only be used as a watch, so get your geek a really good watch, and forget about the slide rule. Most especially if your geek has a cell phone.


Hatha

Pretty sure this ad was from early 20th century...

[Hitch]

You can buy one on ebay..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wakmann-chronograph-with-Venus-188-movement-steel-case-with-gold-bezel-/141514391859?pt=Wristwatches&hash=item20f2ea4133

[Olmstein]

My father was an engineer who used a slide rule most of his professional life. I can remember in the early 1970's I bought him a Texas Instruments calculator and he promptly put the slide rule in his drawer and never took it out again.

Hatha

That describes my father exactly. I remember how excited he was when he bought his first TI calculator.

[palani]

I don't see any point for this device,

Roughly based on the E6B ... I expect these are still in use by many general aviation pilots as slide rules involved with speed distance calculations.

Solutions can be found much faster on a slide rule than a calculator. Accuracy is limited to 3 places in the better models but speed and technique was the goal rather than accuracy.

[palani]

http://cs.stmarys.ca/~dawson/sliderule1.jpg

This one is for multiplying two complex numbers. You can find the instructions for making it here.

http://cs.stmarys.ca/~dawson/ComplexSlideRule.html

Probably not really practical but then there is the 'cool' factor.

Be sure and check out the legal disclaimer:

By downloading the image to the left you acknowledge that it is not designed or intended for use in the design, construction, operation or maintenance of any nuclear facility, spaceship, or time machine.