Bringing 1916 to 2016: Slide Rules

Before the graphing calculator, the slide rule was the archetypal instrument for engineering students at MIT. Do current students know what a slide rule is or how to use it? They're about to show us.

[albertwestbrook]

Slide rules and log./trig. tables really drove home the importance of mathematical relationships and the fine art of simplifying expressions. Think before you start punching buttons.

[richardburns]

I use a slide rule when doing and estimating construction jobs. It freaks most customers out. Older customers are impressed, especially the engineers!

[joesmith]

I taught my kid to use one. He graduated from HS in 2008 and used it in school. Oddly, people thought it was really cool - admittedly he had some pretty nerdy friends.

[JamesBond-uzdm]

I still have one tucked away. Texas Instruments came out with a calculator about 1972. It cost $ 400 in 1972, which is $ 2, 300 today. My dad said to stick with the slide rule.

[robertlozyniak]

You can still find slide rules in use today. There is a tool called a "proportion wheel" which is basically a circular slide rule for use in graphic design and printing.

[ingibingi]

people were doing integrals well before the calculator

[sumayfield]

I'm a substitute teacher for technology. For fun, I was allowed to teach elementary school children how to use a slide rule. They had to make them out of paper. The premise was to show them where technology came from and where it's going. (They even learned the ABACUS!) Children from 2nd grade to 8th were intrigued by the slide rule and wanted to learn more! One student stated that he stopped using his calculator and began to use his paper slide rule to do his homework! MIT, get on board!

[mrkrvn]

if i was taught math using a slide rule, I feel I would have a better grasp of math than I do now... I've only known of its existence for 30 min. this thing is awesome.

[johngillon]

I was in my apprenticeship when the first calculators were coming out. at the time i was learning about the slide rule in the classes of my machinist apprentice classes. I was sad, because everyone became enamored with the new calculators, and they stopped training us on the slide rule. 1973 for me. I thought the slide rule was wonderfully simply and with it i gained a new perspective on the relationships of numbers.

[edjackson]

I was a slide rule expert when I graduated in 1966. Listening to young people talk about it reminds me of something my daughter asked me once. She said, "Dad if we lose our electricity, how would we open tin cans?"

[TheGelatinousSnake]

It still beats calculators at ratios, if you are dealing with multiple questioms about the same ratio.

[Hopeless_and_Forlorn]

I still have a Pickering slide rule that I used while studying electronics in 1968. Coincidentally, my mother was an executive secretary who worked with Jack Kilby, the inventor of the pocket calculator, at Texas Instruments. Personally, I think the slide rule was a superior teaching tool as compared to the electronic calculator. Arriving at the correct answer while using a slide rule meant that you had to have an approximation of the result worked out in your head before reading the numbers. Also, you had to know where to put the decimal point. All in all, it was a wonderful device.

[freeman]

I was in the Royal Australian Airforce (RAAF) in 1988 and on my course we were not only taught how to use a slide rule but we're also issued one (this was over ten years after they became obsolete). When I questioned my instructor why we were learning this he said it was important to know because you never know when your calculator is going to run out of batteries! Onece I graduated my course I very quickly forgot how to use the slide rule and relied on the calculator I was also issued.

In 2022 I bought a vintage slide rule and have started learning how to use it 😅

[davidsandy]

I still use my slide rule. It is very convenient when doing unit conversions.

[TitanJ]

I gave one of my slide rulers to a high school math wiz. He was happy to get it and he figured it out much faster than these MIT students.

[scottfleming]

The electronic calculator is obviously superior to a slide rule. But I think the electronic calculator has produced generations of engineers that tend to be punch and crunch. When the slide rule was all an engineer had, I think there was a better intuition of engineering of how variable affected each other.

[TheMickvee]

Are these kids engineering students? And have they no idea what a slide rule is? What would they do in the future if say, an EMP somehow disabled all electronic devices and the rest of the world were waiting for these "engineers" to get us out of the new stone age? I'd better keep my old slide rule under lock and key in case such a thing happens!

[gedstrom]

I mentioned the term "Slide Rule" to a fellow engineer at work one time maybe 12 years ago. He didn't have the slightest idea what I was talking about. So, the next day, I brought in my old slide rule that I had used in my high school and college days starting back around 1964. There was a time when they were standard equipment for any engineering student and classes were taught on how to use them. Mine was a higher-end model and is still in very good condition.

[SoloRenegade]

I'm a Mechanical Engineer, and I think all kids should be taught math using a slide rule. and handwritten math homework too. and nothing more than a basic scientific electronic calculator allowed through Calc 3. People would be so much better at math.

I've begun using and carrying a slide rule lately. I've even used a slide rule for driving to compute time enroute, and such (we also use slide rules still in aviation, the E6B).

[TheBowersj]

We went to the moon using the slide rule...we replaced it with the calculator and haven't returned to the moon since. Oh the synchronicities!!!