Why a slide rule is better than a computer

[BobG]

Anyone remember rotary calculators?

http://www.mortati.com/glusker/elecmech/rotary/DiehlDSR18.htm

I used an old manual one back in the early 70's in college for a business class.

Here's some nostalgia.

http://www.piercefuller.com/collect/before.html

Here's a good site for computer nostalgia: Columbia University Computing History

Plus a story on the joys of programming via punch card:
Programming with Punched Cards

They have pictures of the computers, punch card readers, etc, plus a picture of the first console/monitors they used. Believe it or not, the last time I used one of those monitors was about a year ago, when one of the work centers I help out in finally replaced their c.1980 system with an STK based system to do their orbital analysis work. Oh, the good old days when you could start a run and go surf the internet for up to an hour sometimes with nothing to do until the program finally finished. Now, with faster computers and better software, most of the runs finish in less than a minute - which also means we have time to create all kinds of new products and/or studies for the satellite control network, which means we spend the entire day working instead of surfing the net. Damn progress!

 

[Astronuc]

I did one that one at CSM and one at a close-by school in mathematics (I did non-Euclidean geometry) during the previous summer . I remember dozens of such programs across the country. I had my choice of CSM, LSU, and the University of Kansas between my junior and senior year in high school. http://www.igert.org/high school.asp?sort=cat&subsort=Physics" . Sad.

I was wondering if they still existed because I'd love to send my son to one. My brother did one in biology in Indiana, and he met the girl he eventually married (and they're still married after 30 years).

One of my HS classmates did a program at MIT, and he went there for his undergrad and grad programs.

Our high school really pushed us to do these programs. And about a dozen or so students went to different universities around the country.

 

[D H]

Rather than continue a hijack this old thread (mea kulpa for the hijack), I started https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=201105" that seem to have disappeared like slide rules and dinosaurs.