At 10:30 AM 11/1/96 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote:
Sliderules were just becoming common when I was in high school....
Seriously, only a very few of us had and used sliderules...mine was a big synthetic K & E (Keuffel and Esser, as I recall). The raging "DOS vs. Mac" or "RISC vs. CISC" debate of that age was "aluminum" (the yellow Dietzgens) vs. the old standby, "bamboo." Plus some oddball circular sliderules.
Slide rules are still, IMHO, the best calculator to keep in a car for calculating gas mileage. They are rugged, have no batteries, are not attractive to thieves, and have sufficient accuracy for the problem. They also teach the logarithm relation, which is valuable for understanding the physical universe. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Frantz | Tired of Dole/Clinton? | Periwinkle -- Consulting (408)356-8506 | Vote 3rd party. I'm | 16345 Englewood Ave. frantz@netcom.com | Voting for Harry Browne | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA