Similar background story, I was 8 in 1970, and my father knew what a slide rule was, and how to use it, so I learned a bit of trig from him before repeatedly checking out a textbook on trig from the public library.
True story: my son took an AP physics class in high school, (LASA) taught by sokeone with a PhD in physics. They had an oversized teaching sliderule hanging from the ceiling, where nobody could use it. It had become decoration, as nobody was left to teach with it.
When I was at the school for a “meet your student’s teachers” night, one of the other parents asked about the side rule. Instructor didn’t know how it worked.
So I explained it.
My wife still has her grandfather’s slide rules from when he was the state engineer in the 50s and 60s.
I remember those large teaching slide-rules, but haven't seen one in decades. Great to know they still exist, if only as mysterious artifacts from the dark ages.
Neither of my parents were mathematically inclined, but they were content to let me forage for information on my own, with lots of trips to the library. Amazing how clear are my 50-year-old memories of 10-year-old me sitting on the floor with a trig book, drawing random triangles on paper, measuring them as carefully as I could with ruler and protractor, and verifying the law of sines and cosines with paper and slide-rule. God, I was such a nerd. Paid off well in the end, though :-)
Now I'm retired, and for fun, I work my way through the problems at Project Euler. Four years in, and only two more problems to go to hit 90% complete! It'll probably take me another year+ to finish them all (hopefully).
We end up doing a lot of back-of-the-envelope calculations for various odds-and-ends. I keep a 4’ long teaching slide-rule next to my desk for this purpose. New employees are befuddled. Everyone else just accepts it as a fact-of-life when asking for my help.
Comments
Similar background story, I was 8 in 1970, and my father knew what a slide rule was, and how to use it, so I learned a bit of trig from him before repeatedly checking out a textbook on trig from the public library.
True story: my son took an AP physics class in high school, (LASA) taught by sokeone with a PhD in physics. They had an oversized teaching sliderule hanging from the ceiling, where nobody could use it. It had become decoration, as nobody was left to teach with it.
When I was at the school for a “meet your student’s teachers” night, one of the other parents asked about the side rule. Instructor didn’t know how it worked.
So I explained it.
My wife still has her grandfather’s slide rules from when he was the state engineer in the 50s and 60s.
I remember those large teaching slide-rules, but haven't seen one in decades. Great to know they still exist, if only as mysterious artifacts from the dark ages.
Neither of my parents were mathematically inclined, but they were content to let me forage for information on my own, with lots of trips to the library. Amazing how clear are my 50-year-old memories of 10-year-old me sitting on the floor with a trig book, drawing random triangles on paper, measuring them as carefully as I could with ruler and protractor, and verifying the law of sines and cosines with paper and slide-rule. God, I was such a nerd. Paid off well in the end, though :-)
Now I'm retired, and for fun, I work my way through the problems at Project Euler. Four years in, and only two more problems to go to hit 90% complete! It'll probably take me another year+ to finish them all (hopefully).
We end up doing a lot of back-of-the-envelope calculations for various odds-and-ends. I keep a 4’ long teaching slide-rule next to my desk for this purpose. New employees are befuddled. Everyone else just accepts it as a fact-of-life when asking for my help.