How the Slide Rule Changes your Conception of Math

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Song: Stepwise - Vincent Rubinetti

Intro 0:00
Explanation 0:34
Conclusion 3:25

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An eloquent presentation. I learned to use a slide rule in high school, as a lazy student, coasting through classes. I went to work in a race car factory, already with a good understanding of Aerodynamics in 1969. I built model airplanes from Balsawood. Later I repaired large airliners, heavy structures wing fittings, landing gears trunnions, pressure bulkheads. I found a lot of bad math. Often I rejected repairs from engineers "after running the numbers." Now retired. Still have a slide rule.

johnfalkenstine

You summed up the slide rule and its place in the mathematical universe very elegantly.

Well done!

theinspector

Regarding 3:56, in using a slide rule for calculating numbers with many digits, the method is to convert them into their scientific notation. Then the answer can be focused on its significant figures while its decimal point is determined by its power of ten or its order of magnitude.

jadenephrite

For a while now, I've been considering buying a slide rule mostly for the novelty. This clinches it.

OptimusPhillip

Thank you for this video! A few years ago, I “rescued” a beautiful (!) Pickett & Eckel slide ruler with its case.

gratefuloldperson

Circular slide rulers (e.g. E6B Flight Computer) are still used by pilots for multiplication and division plus lots of conversion scales and a graphic screen on the back for solving wind triangle problems like drift correction when flying with a crosswind.

karhukivi

Around 2:37, it's also worth noting that in some way it's about the labelling of scale marks and how giving marks a label, just like 'labelling' people, makes you think differently and have expectations of the capabilities of the marks.

Labelling is powerful. A ruler with fresh labels can do powerful things, just like superheroes with their recognisable 'suits'.

(even more fun is log tables, especially natural log table, and the use of the 'bar' notation for mixing positive and negative parts of the logarithm (e.g. 3.14E-09 -> ??) !

philipoakley

Good video. I was introduced to slide rules by my Dad many years ago. Decades later, I got really interested in them. It began with the same one that you printed out. And yes, it was like magic. Here I had a scientific calculator made of a single sheet of paper. From there I was hooked. In addition to the slide rules I inherited from my Dad, I've bought a few on eBay.
I have also made modifications and additions to that paper slide rule, and then I made some of my own. So far they're just on paper and cardstock, and those work fine.
Now I'm trying to bring all that into the world of laser engraving so I can make more solid state models.

johnbutler

The slide rule DOES lack precision, although people might be implying it's infinite "analogue" resolution. We are limited by our feeble eye sight to get more than two decimal places of precision (if you're lucky).

What the slide rule really is, is an "unreasonably good equivalent substitution for the monster of 64bit floating point arithmetic. Like 22/7 is "unreasonably good" as a substitute for Pi.

itadaku

Well put. I used a slide rule in my electronics courses in college. I tended towards the circular ones because of their compactness. I have a small collection now, including the 5-inch straight one my dad kept in his shirt pocket at work.

timpenner

Excellent intro to the slide rule, along with a beautiful top of the Hemmi rule.

lowelldueck

This is a prescient and needed video! Thank you for posting.

I teach at a university and one class session in one course is devoted to analyzing the data from the Challenger (space shuttle) accident. I conclude with discussing why Bob Ebeling and Roger Boisjoly may have understood the calculus (lower case) of the problem better than others and were so adamant that NASA should not launch. They were trained as engineers during a time when slide rules were the instruments of calculations and really had a solid feel for the relationships between numbers and the impacts of those differences. Thus, they knew what perspective to use to evaluate decisions and applications.

I’ve droned on too long. But, from a fellow slide rule aficionado, though a newbie, thank you for this.

elmoreglidingclub

Amen, bro; I've had mine since the Apollo era... Picket, dual-base log-log yellow aluminum.

markh.harris

I bought a pair of them a few years back from a seller in Germany, out of novelty and also possible future Carrington-like events. Just like their relative antiquity and lack of use in modern times, the countries-of-origin of each of those 2 respective slide rules are also non-existent today (East and West Germany - manufactured by VEB Mantissa and Faber-Castell respectively).

teeteetuu

I bought a Dietzgen Micromatic from ebay to troll my older engineering professors.

I also use it as an educational fidget toy and potential backup to my Ti-84...

BrokenLifeCycle