12/29/2023 0 Comments Best mechanical engineering calculator![]() Yet, despite the calculating power now held in today’s smartphone or scientific calculator, the slide rule isn’t quite dead. ![]() Still others may have ended up on display shelves as a reminder of a bygone era. Some were packed away in storage boxes or drawers to be revisited when their owners felt nostalgic. Many slide rules went into the trash and were replaced by the new technology. Seemingly overnight, the trusted, reliable, and handsomely crafted slide rules in the pockets of their owners were rendered obsolete. In effect it was the world’s first electronic slide rule. It was the first handheld calculator ever to perform logarithmic and trigonometric functions with one keystroke. On February 1, 1972, Hewlett-Packard introduced the HP-35, regarded as the first successful scientific pocket calculator. Yes, the slide rule was a powerful tool until the early l970s, when things began to change. Perhaps its most impressive use was during the Apollo 13 crisis when engineers had to recalculate data to guide the crew safely back to Earth-and they had to do it quickly all with the aid of a slide rule. The slide rule was universally used for nearly 400 years and was the most commonly used calculation tool in science and engineering. Often no larger than a 12-inch ruler and marked with numbers, the powerful mechanical computing device operates by sliding in and out to show relationships between different sets of numbers.ĭeveloped in the 17 th century by Reverend William Oughtred, an E nglish mathematician and Anglican minister, and others, the slide rule is based on the work of John Napier, a Scottish mathematician, physicist, and astronomer, who discovered the concept of logarithms. During the 1950s and 1960s, the remarkable instrument-small, light, efficient, and not requiring batteries-would most often be carried in a belt holster ready for calculating action.Īlso known as a slipstick, the slide rule itself is a kind of computer-the very basic, very analog kind. Once a symbol of technology, slide rules are a fading memory among CSE alumniīefore smartphones and the laptop, no serious science or engineering student would be caught on the University of Minnesota campus without a slide rule.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |