Nice to hear that somebody had a memory of these "nerd rulers" 🙂

I learnt to use basic funtions on my Grandfather's 1947 Diwa, a basic "Mannheim" model (the Einstein and Von Braun type). Multiply, devide, finding square roots, cubic roots and trigonometry.

I had just acquired a ca. 1962 Nestler "Darmstadt" type model, a little more complicated but fun to use. Today I found an interesting instruction book in Danish, found it very usefull at showing the differences and how to fully exploit the extra functions. This slide rule can actually add a power op up to x * 10^5 with three log-log scales on the back of the slider 😎

I'm not a math nerd, just sat down for a couple of hours with a book about logarithms and some experience from my mid-level gym math.

This little beauty helped me through university many years ago.  The inner six concentric circles are equivalent to a 50 inch slide rule.

Still in perfect working order and does not require a capacitor change.🙂

Regards

Geoff

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One of the reasons I first fell in love with B&O was that cool scientific slide rule look :-)

I had always been in awe of my Dad (an engineer) and his slide rule (which I still have)

And I bought my own (more sophisticated one) when I went to Uni, but lost it shortly afterwards when I went overseas

I "teach" sliderule concepts to people by taking to normal rulers, inverting one, and showing how the two rules slide together to perform addition or subtraction 😂 the conversion of the slide rule scale to logarithmic is of course the magic that turns addition into multiplication

When I was at Uni my friend had this device - and was mych envyed (I had always drooled over them in advertisements in Scientific American) for his technological advantage (accuracy) over the rest of us plebs 😂

But it was irritating to be sitting in a silent examination hall and hear the whirring of the Curta's gears as he cranked his way through the calculations 😂 😂

But before I left Uni the first HP calculators had appeared and so these beautiful devices for a 400 year heritage were destined to become collectors items !

elephant wrote:

Curta's gears

Well, that brings this thread full circle for me!

As a recovering retired engineer, I missed the window (college in the '80's) to use a slide rule. I know my father had one, but it disappeared in the early 70's when a TI hand-held calculator showed up. Always wanted to learn, so I may give it a whirl someday.

Back to Curta... Some late night, long ago... I was on an induced eBay binge (read: too much juice) and I stumbled upon old (some vintage) drafting supplies. I thought that would make an interesting collection theme and duly bought a bunch of "stuff" -but stopped short of a Curta. Wow, they can bring some money!

Here is a CURTA SITE if anyone is interested.

burantek wrote:

Here is a CURTA SITE if anyone is interested.

Just looking at their main poster of an exploded/exposed Curta Mark I reminds me how beautifully engineered they were and how complex they were.

That "pepper grinder" sure looks interesting, a very clever piece of engineering 🙂

My 60-year-old physics teacher (mid-level in upper secondary school) became totally nostalgic when he saw my Mannheim slide rule. He have had a very similar one, but it disappeared in the 70's when he bought a TI calculator instead. He could still remember how to operate it after 35 years!

One of my old friends who is also 18 years old like me has become very interested in old-school stuff. She went nuts when I told her that I could use a slide rule and begged me to learn her how to make all arithmetic operations.

I might popularize them for use in math exams. In Denmark, a written math exam divided(pun not intended) into two assignments; one done without any mathematical assistive (books with tables/formulas and electronic calculators), and one with assistives. The slide rule is not called a "mathematical assistive" anymore because it's outdated, thus a slide rule can legally be used during the first part of the test 👍

Søren Hammer wrote:

One of my old friends who is also 18 years old like me has become very interested in old-school stuff. She went nuts when I told her that I could use a slide rule and begged me to learn her how to make all arithmetic operations.

Wait a minute, so your telling me I can pick up chicks with math??!?!???!?!!!!?

Evan wrote:

Søren Hammer wrote:

One of my old friends who is also 18 years old like me has become very interested in old-school stuff. She went nuts when I told her that I could use a slide rule and begged me to learn her how to make all arithmetic operations.

Wait a minute, so your telling me I can pick up chicks with math??!?!???!?!!!!?

Absolutely ... magnets too 

Evan wrote:

Søren Hammer wrote:

One of my old friends who is also 18 years old like me has become very interested in old-school stuff. She went nuts when I told her that I could use a slide rule and begged me to learn her how to make all arithmetic operations.

Wait a minute, so your telling me I can pick up chicks with math??!?!???!?!!!!?

Yep, though only those hipster chicks; But it is an interesting thought that I, in theory, can pick up a girl with something as nerdy and outdated as a slide rule!

Imagine if girls would have the same reaction to my valve guitar amplifiers 😁