Originally Posted by
qcpmsame
Typing classes are akin to required slide rule classes for engineering students, I managed to test out of that one since I had to do a 6 week slide rule module, for physics class, in high school.
And, now they are having some high school, and even college classes for slide rule, because the students seem to get a better grasp of mathematical functions by using a rule. Must be why I still use, and collect, slides, perhaps I am just ahead of the curve for once in my life.
Bill
That's amazing. I would have guessed that they were anachronisms by now, a curiosity on display beside the Babbage difference engine. But you're right, I got the basic trig from just using the trig scales.
We used to have slide rule competitions, all the way up to the State level. Just a timed list of computations, progressively harder, and some of those kids were machines with eye-blink speed. I had no chance; I thought they were obsolete even then and refused to practice. Except I won second at District by putting the slide rule aside and doing it mentally using the Trachtenberg System that I'd modified for three significant digits. Might have been first had not the test monitor interrupted to accuse me of cheating
Do anyone but engineers use electronic calculators any more? Other than cell phones ... we'll soon be
three generations behind: slide rule, calculator, desktop computer ...