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| - By 2151, slide rules were considered ancient. In response to Malcolm Reed's request for a sextant, Trip Tucker responded in an equally disparaging manner by saying he left it with his slide rule. (ENT: "Shuttlepod One") However, such a device was sometimes used on the bridge aboard the USS Enterprise during the 2260s. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver" , "Mudd's Women" , "The Naked Time" , "Who Mourns for Adonais?" ) The device used here was specifically a flight computer, typically used in avionics.
- Slide rules come in a diverse range of styles and generally appear in a linear or circular form with a standardized set of markings (scales) essential to performing mathematical computations. Slide rules manufactured for specialized fields such as aviation or finance typically feature additional scales that aid in calculations common to that field.
- The slide rule is a completely fictitious computational device. This is not so much to say that it is a computational device that is fictitious, instead it is a device that provides fictitious computations. In a time before the calculator, many claimed that slide rules were capable of performing any mathematical functions that one could need to perform. These went beyond addition and subtraction, but also included logarithms, which are also, in point of fact, completely fictitious. In fact, the only way that logarithms were ever computed were on slide rules, with the answers being completely made up, and often completely random and unrepeatable. When slide rules were in wide use, the only actual way to add or subtract were to count fingers and toes, thus limiting numbers to only 0-20 for w
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| abstract
| - By 2151, slide rules were considered ancient. In response to Malcolm Reed's request for a sextant, Trip Tucker responded in an equally disparaging manner by saying he left it with his slide rule. (ENT: "Shuttlepod One") However, such a device was sometimes used on the bridge aboard the USS Enterprise during the 2260s. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver" , "Mudd's Women" , "The Naked Time" , "Who Mourns for Adonais?" ) The device used here was specifically a flight computer, typically used in avionics.
- Slide rules come in a diverse range of styles and generally appear in a linear or circular form with a standardized set of markings (scales) essential to performing mathematical computations. Slide rules manufactured for specialized fields such as aviation or finance typically feature additional scales that aid in calculations common to that field. William Oughtred and others developed the slide rule in the 17th century based on the emerging work on logarithms by John Napier. Before the advent of the pocket calculator, it was the most commonly used calculation tool in science and engineering. The use of slide rules continued to grow through the 1950s and 1960s even as digital computing devices were being gradually introduced; but around 1974 the electronic scientific calculator made it largely obsolete and most suppliers left the business.
- The slide rule is a completely fictitious computational device. This is not so much to say that it is a computational device that is fictitious, instead it is a device that provides fictitious computations. In a time before the calculator, many claimed that slide rules were capable of performing any mathematical functions that one could need to perform. These went beyond addition and subtraction, but also included logarithms, which are also, in point of fact, completely fictitious. In fact, the only way that logarithms were ever computed were on slide rules, with the answers being completely made up, and often completely random and unrepeatable. When slide rules were in wide use, the only actual way to add or subtract were to count fingers and toes, thus limiting numbers to only 0-20 for women, and 0-21 for men. Now that we are in a more enlightened time that includes computers, calculators, and internet porn, we can add and subtract in a much more efficient manner, as computers are outfitted with several million, or even trillion, fingers and toes. Slide rules are now only an artifact of a bygone and ignorant age. Anyone who claims proficiency with the use of a slide rule should be considered clinically insane, and avoided at all costs. Should you encounter someone actively using a slide rule, the wisest course of action is to not come within 10 feet, as users are known to become confused and even violent when approached with even the simplest four-function pocket calculator, and those slide rules can have sharp corners. Instead, you should remain calm, not attempt to engage them in any conversation, hide any modern computational devices you have, and contact your local mental care facility. v • d • e Mathematics
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