In a message dated 12/09/2003 5:05:53 PM Central Standard Time,
vinttr4@geneseo.net writes:
> My youngest daughter has a Ph.D. in Math and is an associate professor of
> same. Not too long ago she was home for a few days and i showed her my old
> Post Versalog. She had never seen a slide rule! What's the world coming to?
>
Jack:
Amen!
When I first got out of the Navy, and began working construction, I remember
watching my uncle do multiplication extensions on his slide rule for
estimates. A school or church job could involve hundreds, if not thousands of
extensions. I never really followed the slide rule process, but I know he did
the
tail end of each calculation in his head. Hence, the bigger the number, the
bigger the tail end he was doing in his head. While it impressed me to no end,
I
was hell-bent on persuading him to switch to an electric adding machine, where
you could use 'chain addition' for such multiplication extensions, as well as
produce a tape for double checking. He fought me, but I won out. All this
was pre-early electric calculators (Victor, Burroughs, etc), and way before the
electronic calculators we use now.
Bill
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