My DIY circular slide rule side project — an excuse to improve my knowledge of CSS3 transitions and SVG — progresseth apace.
There is now a simple version (just multiplication and subtraction) and an advanced version (square and cube roots). It will also animate the solutions to random basic problems on either.
Coming soon:
advanced problems
DIY printables and instructions for assembling your own
Did you get a $15k quote for #HeatPumps swap from your central #methane furnace? Are heat load calculators really still this hard to use or are sales bros just not doing the work? We had cardboard #sliderules that did it in the 80's. LMAO just wait for the coldest day and measure it @TechConnectify 🤣
Airplane altimeters over-read in colder-than-normal temperatures. If you were on a plane before the digital age and it had to clear a ridge, this is how the flight crew decided whether they were actually high enough to make it.
You don't need to have an E6B analogue flight computer (though it's fun); just hit any key to see the complex steps — one really hoped the navigator hadn't skipped their morning tea or coffee. 🙂
Among my hobbies, probably the weirdest one is circular slide rules. I was introduced to them 22 years ago when I started flying lessons, and have since branched out from the E6B to non-aviation circular rules. I like them because
@nyrath The DC-3 (designed exclusively using #slideRules) has never crashed due to a design defect, according to people I talked to at McDonnell-Douglas in the late 1990s. You can't say the same for Boeing's latest aircraft. I suspect there are two reasons for that:
GIGO: People trust the output of computers and skip common-sense sanity checks.
The DC-3 was overbuilt (to be on the safe side), while modern CAD allows companies to cut things closer to the margins for extra $$$.
First, it sure is nice that we don't actually have to choose just one slide rule and stick with that, but if you had to choose just one, which one would it be?...
I think that one is a 1006 rather than a 600. I have attached a comparison picture, with an N600, an N1006, and Aldrin's slide rule with its contrast turned up a bit.
It looks like we are looking at the side without the logo, and it looks like the near end of the slide has "Pickett All Metal Slide Rules", which the 600 does not have. And the slide looks like it has CF, CIF, CI, and C scales, and the bottom rail has D and L.
I'm not saying Aldrin didn't take a 600 to the moon. I just don't think that's a 600 in the Gemini XII picture. What do you think?
Image Credits: NASA and International Slide Rule Museum. I used the ISRM pictures because they are clearer than my pictures of my own 600 and 1006.
Looking at slide rules on Ebay, I notice a LOT of sellers post pictures of slide rules with their slides flipped. The slides might be flipped end-for-end, or rotated 180°, so the right scales are showing, but upside down....
Another of my favorite slide rules, the Aristo No. 867U System Darmstadt. This rule has a pleasant graphical design, and it's a very legible pocket rule. I like that it includes log-log scales, and the P scale is an interesting feature you don't see on a lot of rules. Having the trig scales on the body of the rule adds a wrinkle to using trig scales on a slide rule. You also don't see a BI (1/x²) scale on a lot of rules. This is also me experimenting with Kbin's Microblogging. #sliderules
I sure love slide rules. Endless things to relearn about logarithms. Beautiful to behold, pleasing to use and play with. Fun to collect. My favorite more modern one has to be the venerable Pickett N600-ES (it’s been to the moon! Kind of!), which I keep on me much of the time. Here it’s telling me that my voltage regulator was dissipating 5.6 watts before it died. #SlideRules
What's a hobby or interest of yours that you really love explaining to others?
What’s something you love, and love describing or explaining to people who are new to that interest, hobby, or activity?
If you could only have one Slide Rule, which one would it be?
First, it sure is nice that we don't actually have to choose just one slide rule and stick with that, but if you had to choose just one, which one would it be?...
Why do Slide Rule Sellers do this?
Looking at slide rules on Ebay, I notice a LOT of sellers post pictures of slide rules with their slides flipped. The slides might be flipped end-for-end, or rotated 180°, so the right scales are showing, but upside down....
My Pickett Model 700.
Welcome to Sliderules!
Hello there! Let's talk about Slide Rules!...