Calculator Wars at your School

[Garth Wilson]

(06-22-2022 04:31 AM)RichieHH Wrote:  

(06-20-2021 09:25 PM)Garth Wilson Wrote:  Hmmm... I'd say someone was not very skilled at the slide rule! Someone who's skilled at it should be able to get answers just about as quickly as with a calculator. The big difference came when calculators became programmable and could carry out ten instructions per second. That's where I left the slide rule behind.

I'm wondering if you're joking here. There's a reason slide rules were replaced. A slide rule user won't come close to a decent sci calc user in terms of speed or accuracy. Nice idea, but somewhat hazed by romantic notion?

Maybe someday I'll be in a position to make videos to demonstrate. The slide rule is quick, if you're skilled. However, every video demonstration I've seen shows that the operator didn't know how to quickly get a vernier effect with the fingers to home in on super accurate settings of the slide or even the cursor. I am out of practice now, but I stand by what I said. When I was using it all the time, I really could get answers just about as quickly as I could with a calculator. It doesn't take any skill or much understanding to punch buttons though, which was a major attraction for the calculator.