Ever wanted to know how engineers made their calculations before digital calculators were on every workbench? [Richard Carpenter] and [Robert Wolf] have just the thing—a sliderule simulator that can teach you how to do a whole bunch of complex calculations the old fashioned way!
The simulator is a digital recreation of the Hemmi/Post 1460 Versalog slide rule. This was a particularly capable tool that was sold from 1951 to 1975 and is widely regarded as one of the best slide rules ever made. It can do all kinds of useful calculations for you just by sliding the scales and the cursor appropriately, from square roots to trigonometry to exponents and even multi-stage multiplication and divisions.
You can try the simulator yourself in a full-screen window here. It’s written in JavaScript and runs entirely in the browser. If you’ve never used a slide rule before, you might be lost as you drag the center slide and cursor around. Fear not, though. The simulator actually shows you how to use it. You can tap in an equation, and the simulator will both spit out a list of instructions to perform the calculation and animate it on the slide rule itself. There are even a list of “lessons” and “tests” that will teach you how to use the device and see if you’ve got the techniques down pat. It’s the sort of educational tool that would have been a great boon to budding engineers in the mid-20th century. With that said, most of them managed to figure it out with the paper manuals on their own, anyway.
We’ve featured other guides on how to use this beautiful, if archaic calculation technology, too. We love to see this sort of thing, so don’t hesitate to notify the tipsline if you’ve found a way to bring the slide rule back to relevance in the modern era!
Thanks to [Stephen Walters] for the tip!
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
All rights reserved to : USAGOLDMIES . www.usagoldmines.com
You can Enjoy surfing our website categories and read more content in many fields you may like .
Why USAGoldMines ?
USAGoldMines is a comprehensive website offering the latest in financial, crypto, and technical news. With specialized sections for each category, it provides readers with up-to-date market insights, investment trends, and technological advancements, making it a valuable resource for investors and enthusiasts in the fast-paced financial world.