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Before the advent of the scientific pocket calculator, it was the most commonly used calculation tool in science and engineering. [3] The slide rule's ease of use, ready availability, and low cost caused its use to continue to grow through the 1950s and 1960s, even as electronic computers were gradually introduced.
Time and methods engineering use statistics to study repetitive operations in manufacturing in order to set standards and find optimum (in some sense) manufacturing procedures. Reliability engineering which measures the ability of a system to perform for its intended function (and time) and has tools for improving performance. [2] [8] [9] [10]
A slide rule scale is a line with graduated markings inscribed along the length of a slide rule used for mathematical calculations. The earliest such device had a single logarithmic scale for performing multiplication and division, but soon an improved technique was developed which involved two such scales sliding alongside each other.
Mechanical computers can be either analog, using continuous or smooth mechanisms such as curved plates or slide rules for computations; or discrete, which use mechanisms like pinwheels and gears. [clarify]
Schumacher's original design, from which the Model 366 slide rule deviates only slightly Number table depicted on the slide rule. The A. W. Faber Model 366 was an unusual model of slide rule, manufactured in Germany by the A. W. Faber Company around 1909, with scales that followed a system invented by Johannes Schumacher (1858-1930) that used discrete logarithms to calculate products of ...
The Fuller calculator, sometimes called Fuller's cylindrical slide rule, is a cylindrical slide rule with a helical main scale taking 50 turns around the cylinder. This creates an instrument of considerable precision – it is equivalent to a traditional slide rule 25.40 metres (1,000 inches) long.
Some older engineers who owned slide rules and know how to use them do indeed use them as a (nostalgic) backup, but even that use is uncommon. They can be useful in education, though--I had a math teacher who hauled a bunch out to teach logarithms quite nicely.
SLIDE-RULE-BRIEF.PDF is a short document that provides a quick introduction to how the program works. SLIDE-RULE.PDF is a much longer book (about 300 pages) that provides more extensive information about the slide-rule software, and also extensive information about some non-computer encryption systems that I have invented.