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glkindlmann | 27 days ago

A big 6-foot K&E sliderule hung at the front of my high-school chemistry classroom, but was never used. At graduation ('91) I asked the teacher if I could have the slide rule and she said "sure".

I keep it now in my office, and once a year I bring to the data visualization class I teach at UChicago, to show how it works, and to show it as an example of a visual device in aid of computational thinking (nomographs being another great example).

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dapperdrake|27 days ago

There is also the Vernier scale on certain styles of mechanical calipers.

glkindlmann|26 days ago

I love the Vernier scales! But I honestly hadn't known about the sense in which slide rules have a Venier scale until your comment, which led me to [1]. In another class on laser-cutting I had students make a kerf-meter, which became more accurate with a Vernier scale.

[1] https://dram.page/p/slide-rule-vernier/