On The Insider: Britney's Bikini-Clad Top 10
BNET Business Network:
BNET
TechRepublic
ZDNet
TalkBack 1 of 35:
Next »
Back to the Future
Believe it or not, I just got my (physics major) son a slide rule.

It seems that the calculators now have enough symbolic-math capability and storage that his profs are banning them from exams (/me recalls the hot debates 35 years ago regarding the HP-45).

Well, no rules against slipsticks and they have another virtue that you might consider for your students: with a slide rule, you must learn to estimate. To this day, my younger colleagues don't understand how I can hip-shoot calculations the way I do (answer: practice.) Not a bad skill, even if all you use it for is making sure you aren't being short-changed.
Posted by: Yagotta B. Kidding   Posted on: 07/12/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
Reply to Story Reply to Message

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

Back to the Future  Yagotta B. Kidding | 07/12/07
They even banned slide rules  Rrhain | 07/12/07
Availability  Yagotta B. Kidding | 07/12/07
If you really want one...  msalzberg | 07/13/07
Circular slide rule  Altotus | 07/24/07
Wow...  rapson | 07/12/07
I have one about that old  RudyTome2 | 07/12/07
Training vs. Education  Yagotta B. Kidding | 07/12/07
Three words  frgough | 07/12/07
No, they promote TI because TI is paying ...  mwagner@... | 07/12/07
"Algebraic notation"  cd2_z | 07/12/07
Which is why the TI 89 is so nice..  ajole | 07/16/07
It's a terrible shame about HP's calculators  e1-p2zb-k4k9-c9g6@... | 07/12/07
I may have an answer (no, not retro)  Yagotta B. Kidding | 07/12/07
Two words  cd2_z | 07/12/07
HP 16C  rapson | 07/12/07
Inertia  tonyd11763@... | 07/12/07
I think it has more to do with HP's ...  mwagner@... | 07/12/07
Not exactly...  frabjous | 07/16/07
Chris, I share your misery over the loss of RPN  mwagner@... | 07/12/07
BTW, the HP12c is still available from HP ...  mwagner@... | 07/12/07
Never understood RPN  linux for me | 07/12/07
HP and RPN  patrick.vanrinsvelt@... | 07/15/07
You buy a beloved HP 32SII...  ahenriks@... | 07/12/07
New HP 35S due out this month ($60)  stwspoon | 07/12/07
Cool!  cd2_z | 07/12/07
I purchased my 12c in 1983 for between $90-100.  e1-p2zb-k4k9-c9g6@... | 07/13/07
48G an engineer's best friend!!!!!!!  crawdad2k | 07/13/07
TI  bret307@... | 07/14/07
Selectable Entry Modes  reholli@... | 07/16/07
As an educator you can get a free HP emulator  mrduron@... | 07/16/07
HP Business Prevention Department  Rich_F | 07/16/07
math bug  endlr@... | 07/16/07
HP 29C  mombo | 07/16/07
SLIDE RULE  jmaniot | 07/25/07

What do you think?

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads