Hunter Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 Does a slide rule give the same information as a logarithm table? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMWB Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 I *think* so, but am by no means an expert. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plink Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 May I admit my ignorance and ask a burning question (or three)? What exactly IS a slide rule? What is it used for? How does it work? I saw one at the space center once, and I know that they used to be used for math of some kind, but that is my complete experience in this matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted June 8, 2014 Author Share Posted June 8, 2014 If you are using a 1960s math book and there is a stand alone chapter in learning to use the slide rule, can you just skip it and use modern resources to figure out the calculations in the following chapters? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 If you are using a 1960s math book and there is a stand alone chapter in learning to use the slide rule, can you just skip it and use modern resources to figure out the calculations in the following chapters? Yes. It is no longer necessary to learn to use a slide rule (it took a lot of practice, and we spent extraordinary amounts on it in school). It is still neat to understand the principle how it works, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 May I admit my ignorance and ask a burning question (or three)? What exactly IS a slide rule? What is it used for? How does it work? I saw one at the space center once, and I know that they used to be used for math of some kind, but that is my complete experience in this matter. The slide rule was used for doing computation before calculators. It uses the laws of logarithms. The most basic idea is: according to the laws of logarithms, the log of a product is the sum of the logarithms. So, using two scales that are divided not in an equidistant manner like a ruler, but in a logarithmic way, you can add two logarithmic sections to obtain the product of the original number. Likewise, you can do division as a subtraction of logs. Other scales allowed computation of square and cube roots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plink Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 So, instead of multiplication you add logs, and instead of division you subtract logs? I'll stick with multiplication and division thanks. ;) ETA: sorry for derailing your thread OP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 So, instead of multiplication you add logs, and instead of division you subtract logs? I'll stick with multiplication and division thanks. ;) Yes, that's right. But before calculators it was a very clever way - you put two sections of slide rule consecutively and boom, have a product :-) Way faster than doing written multiplication with the standard algorithm, or long division. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted June 8, 2014 Author Share Posted June 8, 2014 Vintage books don't use a slide rule. When were they invented, and when did they become part of high school math? Thank you everyone for your responses! And even your questions; then I don't have to ask :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 Vintage books don't use a slide rule. When were they invented, and when did they become part of high school math? slide rules were invented in the 17th century :-) I did not go to school in the US. We learned to use slide rules in Germany in school in the 1970s/80s. We did not have calculators until 10th grade (1983). We used tables fro logarithms and roots and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 My husband used a slide rule in high school (here in the US). I'm several years younger, and I used log tables. We both used calculators in college and grad school. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MFG Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 Our high school chemistry teacher taught us very basic slide rule calculations in class in the early 1970s. I also used log tables in math class. Calculators were just coming into use. They were expensive and could not do much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 May I admit my ignorance and ask a burning question (or three)? What exactly IS a slide rule? What is it used for? How does it work? I saw one at the space center once, and I know that they used to be used for math of some kind, but that is my complete experience in this matter. Slide Rules work like calculators. But you have to know the scale of the number you are looking for -- IE are you looking for a number in the 10,000s, 100s, etc. My physics teacher in HS made us use a slide rule the first semester so we got a LOT of practice in knowing what size of number we were looking for before we even did the calculation. We used calculators the second semester. But I still remember the skills I learned that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 I remember my dad using a slide rule lots in the 1970's. I never learned and don't care to learn, though the concept of using logs is cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaquitita Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 I have one! It was my dads and I used to know how to use it. I found it the other day and could not remember how you work it at all. Lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyGF Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 I never used a slide rule, but my calculus teacher kept one in a glass box over the chalk board with a sign on it saying, "In case of calculator failure, break glass." :-) Loved that teacher! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In The Great White North Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 Vintage books don't use a slide rule. When were they invented, and when did they become part of high school math? They weren't part of my high school math (trig/log tables and scratch paper was, even through AP Calc); they were issued to us in college. I have my Dad's from college also Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyontheFarm Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 I have two now and I don't know why. When Grandma moved out of her home, I was asked if I wanted them and I said sure. I should figure out how to use them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted June 9, 2014 Author Share Posted June 9, 2014 Where else in the world can we have discussions like this? I love this forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aras Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 I feel like learning to use a slide rule nowadays is the math equivalent of being a "prepper." If civilization fails, how will we calculate large numbers without one? ETA: My mother told me she was in her school's Slide Rule Club. (and spelling sheesh!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 If you are using a 1960s math book and there is a stand alone chapter in learning to use the slide rule, can you just skip it and use modern resources to figure out the calculations in the following chapters? Yes. For some calculations you may need a calculator. Others you can do by hand, but they may be far more tedious than necessary. I would recommend using a calculator where you were told to use a slide rule, and otherwise doing calculations manually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 I feel like learning to use a slide rule nowadays is the math equivalent of being a "prepper." If civilization fails, how will be calculate large numbers with one? Either that or just an overabundance of nerdiness, which is why I learned :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 My dad still has one. He used it in high school in the 50's. Thankfully, fancy graphing calculators were the norm by time I hit calculus in the 90's. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 TOPS Science has a unit called "Far Out Math" which teaches logarithms through building a series of folded-paper "slide rules" (only the last one is actually a slide rule). Great Girl really grasped logarithms after working through that unit. She likes to tell her instructors who ask about homeschooling that her parents didn't allow her to have a calculator until she'd built her own slide rule. http://www.topscience.org/books/farout_math43.html Free at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/main/education_outreach.html (Scroll down) I learned logs with tables rather than a slide rule, so I enjoyed the project as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 TOPS Science has a unit called "Far Out Math" which teaches logarithms through building a series of folded-paper "slide rules" (only the last one is actually a slide rule). Great Girl really grasped logarithms after working through that unit. She likes to tell her instructors who ask about homeschooling that her parents didn't allow her to have a calculator until she'd built her own slide rule. http://www.topscience.org/books/farout_math43.html Free at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/main/education_outreach.html (Scroll down) Thanks for sharing this information, Violet Crown. I think my husband will enjoy sharing one or more of these projects with his tutoring students. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 We got to use basic calculators in 3rd form (8th grade) if we could afford them in the high import tax days. They didn't do logs etc but we had log tables. When I was at university in the 90's we had scientific calculators but I'm not sure what a graphing calculators are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted June 9, 2014 Author Share Posted June 9, 2014 TOPS Science has a unit called "Far Out Math" which teaches logarithms through building a series of folded-paper "slide rules" (only the last one is actually a slide rule). Great Girl really grasped logarithms after working through that unit. She likes to tell her instructors who ask about homeschooling that her parents didn't allow her to have a calculator until she'd built her own slide rule. http://www.topscience.org/books/farout_math43.html Free at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/main/education_outreach.html (Scroll down) I learned logs with tables rather than a slide rule, so I enjoyed the project as well. :smilielol5: Thanks for the link, but especially for the story! My older son loves to say startling stuff like that. He doesn't have a single one-liner to compare with that one though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 My dad used a slide rule but did not keep one. He has a book of log tables he showed us. When my husband was first a pilot, they used a type of circular slide rule called a whiz wheel. He still has his but I don't know if they still use them anymore or if the new pilots are even taught how to use them with all the back up systems they have now. They look pretty cool: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E6B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In The Great White North Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 When my husband was first a pilot, they used a type of circular slide rule called a whiz wheel. He still has his but I don't know if they still use them anymore or if the new pilots are even taught how to use them with all the back up systems they have now. They still use them. Dd had to buy one when she got her glider license. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkyandtheBrains. Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 TOPS Science has a unit called "Far Out Math" which teaches logarithms through building a series of folded-paper "slide rules" (only the last one is actually a slide rule). Great Girl really grasped logarithms after working through that unit. She likes to tell her instructors who ask about homeschooling that her parents didn't allow her to have a calculator until she'd built her own slide rule. http://www.topscience.org/books/farout_math43.html Free at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/main/education_outreach.html (Scroll down) I learned logs with tables rather than a slide rule, so I enjoyed the project as well. Thanks for sharing this I know what to torture, I mean do with, my kids this summer! Fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted June 9, 2014 Author Share Posted June 9, 2014 Thanks for sharing this I know what to torture, I mean do with, my kids this summer! Fun! Some kids will be willing to do the unit just to have that great one-liner! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 They still use them. Dd had to buy one when she got her glider license. For a glider, that makes sense as a back up. My husband said that in the newer large planes with multi system computerized backups, they are no longer issuing the whiz wheel or teaching students how to use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 For those slide rule fans. Dh is currently reading out loud the book, "the brass dragon". It was published in the 60s. It is a good story that involves aliens, UFOs, ... And they have to use a slide rule to make calculations for space travel. Many of the Heinlein books involve colonies on the moon, mars, etc. -- and yet still have people using slide rules for calculations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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