Re: For Andrew Breen, plasma

On May 22, 10:18 am, Richard Casady <richardcas...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Fri, 22 May 2009 10:39:55 +0200, "Roger Conroy"



<rogerconroy.nos...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"Alan Dicey" <a...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:KaednYhoQa_v_YvXnZ2dnUVZ8hednZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dennis wrote:
Hi Nili,

btw, physics is tough stuff, isn't it.

    Depends on your talents.

I don't geddit it.  I bet
physicists use slide rules and everything.

    They used to; now, thank God, they don't have to.  I remember those
things, what a mess.  I had to carry a jeweler's screwdriver around with
mine because the frame kept coming loose.  It was easy to make mistakes
with them.  They didn't have much precision, and even with a credit-card
calculator now, you can get almost all the precision you want!

Engineers were the big users of slide rules, rather than scientists.  I
still have mine (Faber-Castell Darmstadt, copyright 1957 it says, and
complete with soldering-iron burn on one edge), and can do basic
calculation with it, but have forgotten the usage of the log-log scales
and the like.

You could get 2 or 3 significant digits with a slide rule, and that was
enough for most applications.  If you needed more precision you went to
pencil and paper or used one of the mechanical calculators - at University
we had one that was motor-driven, a fearsome thing.  Tended to gather dust
as we also had the use of an IBM 360.

As Keith has noted downthread, slide rules encouraged you to do a quick
approximate calculation in your head, so as to retain the order of
magnitude, reducing "machine errors" in the result.

Did any of y'all ever use a Curta calculator?
Now that is a thing of beauty and fearsome precision!

I had a couple of K&E 20 inch rules.

Casady

I have a 22 inch K&E, right by my side in case the world collapses in
the next two hours.
.

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