Talk:Slide rule

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Slide rule was nominated as a Engineering and technology good article, but it did not meet the good article criteria at the time (July 27, 2013). There are suggestions on the review page for improving the article. If you can improve it, please do; it may then be renominated.

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Popular Culture[edit]

♥ In Season 4 of The Avengers, John Steed uses a slide rule... But now I can't figure out which episode! I should have written it down. Damn.

♠ In Season 2 Episode 2 of The Wire, at 31m35s, a slide rule is used by the coroner's assistant to calculate how long 13 murdered girls were able to breathe in a closed shipping container.

Duplex[edit]

The entire section "Multiplication" has not one reference, and thus I must assume that it is forbidden "original research". I will post a reference as soon as the original document arrives on my doorstep in a few days. I was taught to use a slide rule in the eighth grade. I used it until my junior year in college, a total of seven years. I was surrounded by classmates, all with slide rules. I every slide rule I ever saw was duplex, as in the image I uploaded. Therefore all of the discussion of "going of scale" is deeply in error. I challenge someone to produce an actual non-duplex slide rule made before 1970. It must be a straight engineering slide rule, not a special purpose one. It must not contain the duplex A and B rules, but only contain the C and D rules. I do not think such a slide rule exists. Nick Beeson (talk) 17:46, 10 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your observation. The use of "duplex" in that section was incorrect and I have removed the term. As the article states elsewhere, duplex means the slide rule has scales on both sides. You are correct that the inclusion of the A/B scales was pretty much universal. I believe double scales go back to the earliest days. Single sided slide rules ("simplex") were common at the low end of the price range. See e.g. https://www.sphere.bc.ca/test/cheap.html The Multiplication section is somewhat misleading. Proper use of a slide rule to multiply e.g. 2 X 7 does not require using he A/B scales, only the C/D scales would normally be used and that should be explained. Using the A/B scales for this needlessly sacrifices accuracy. And yes, a reference would be helpful.--agr (talk) 19:15, 10 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Slide rule scale has a bit to say about this. Thincat (talk) 19:32, 10 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Entirely an aside, but I did want to note that in the early days of Wikipedia, there was little attention paid to adding sources and citations. In fact, the 'citation needed' template didn't exist before 2005 - and this article was started in 2001. So I think it's less a matter of 'original research' (even though yes, it is) and more a matter of inertia, so to speak...cheers! Anastrophe (talk) 22:17, 10 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Walter Shawlee[edit]

Walter Shawlee is described in a February 2024 obit in the NYT as being responsible for a resurgence of interest in slide rules. Maybe someone with access to the article (around 9 Feb.) can see if he is worth mentioning. 02:26, 10 February 2024 (UTC) Kdammers (talk) 02:26, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]