Engineering and math nerds - Do you still remember how to use it?

[Spikedriver]

African, or European?

American. If it was African or European if would probably be in Kilometers per hour and then I'd be even more lost!

 

[Bacpacker]

Didn't the old HP calculators use reverse polish notation?

Ben

Yes it did

 

[Haertig]

if would probably be in Kilometers per hour and then I'd be even more lost

Try fathoms per fortnight, that was always my favorite unit of measure to ask people about.

 

[dademoss]

African, or European?

European, it's Polish.

 

[dademoss]

RPN : why RPN? - and how to use it

 

[backlash]

Alexa isn't allowed in my house. She might know a lot of things, but she can't keep a secret to save her life...

She's female, so that's to be assumed.
Apologies to the females here, I couldn't help myself.

 

[Neb]

RPN : why RPN? - and how to use it

While I never used one I did see a coding example to duplicate RPN.

1st value. - enter
2nd value - enter
Select operation ( ex add)
Result displayed

Ben

 

[Neb]

She's female, so that's to be assumed.
Apologies to the females here, I couldn't help myself.

I believe the female voice is a byproduct of the military pilots and verbal warning messages. Female voices were more readily understood.

Ben

 

[backlash]

You can change Alexas' voice to Samual L. Jackson for 99 cents. 2 versions, 1 family and 1 adult.
Jackson won't totally replace Alexa's voice: you have to request him by saying "Alexa, ask Samuel L Jackson" and then follow up with a question.

 

[Supervisor42]

You can change Alexas' voice to Samual L. Jackson for 99 cents. 2 versions, 1 family and 1 adult.
Jackson won't totally replace Alexa's voice: you have to request him by saying "Alexa, ask Samuel L Jackson" and then follow up with a question.

I don't talk to machines.
It won't be long before they are telling you what you have to do.
"Hey Alexa, unlock the refrigerator door"
Alexa> "I will, as soon as you order something from Amazon"

 

[Cabin Fever]

I teach a workshop that involves a lot of math. Before the math session starts I'll ask, "Does anyone need a calculator"? Usually a few hands will go up. I find the youngest hand raised and give them my old slide rule. They'll, just stare at it and scratch their head.

One time, when me and the attendees were going over the math questions, I used my slide rule in front of them. They were dumbfounded. One smart aleck said the answer is 23,126 (Using my slide rule I came up with 23,100). I told him, "In our line of work, three significant digits is all that is necessary. You don't have to measure with a micrometer if you're going to use a chainsaw to cut it!"

BTW, my slide rule is contained in a nice leather holster.

 

[Cabin Fever]

And, another thing. When I went to college, simple hand calculators cost around $400. Consequently, you were forbidden to use a hand calculator during a test because it gave an unfair advantage to the "rich kids." We all used slide rules or did math long-hand for our college exams and tests.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I went to college after working for about 15 years, I picked up an HP48G that had slots in the back with different libraries cards for different applications. They even had memory so you could make notes. They were eventually banned from test labs....

 

[Haertig]

Here's a sliderule simulator for one with more scales than I know how to use:

http://www.cs.oswego.edu/~odendahl/coursework/isc330/notes/slide-rules/n4es/virtual-n4es.html
Here's another (simpler):

https://www.sliderules.org/react/pickett_n600.html
These simulators are fun to play with. I wish I had the real sliderules though.

 

[Tacitus]

One of the ways Galileo made money was by working out the balistic tables used for cannons that they gunners know how much charge and angle of elevation.

I was an artilleryman. That's when I first learned to use a slide rule.

Sure, we had battery computers to calculate shell trajectories.

And, we had HP calculators to back up the computers if the computers went down. We could run entire fire missions on an HP calculator.

But, the battery command center also had a "charts and darts" team that ran all calculations on slide rules. We had to have a non-electronic backup at all times. After all, the war can't stop just because an EMP hits us!