• tpyo@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    Electronic calculators have their own magic but with slide rules you conjure it yourself and it’s beautiful. I like seeing the how behind the why

    Next time I visit I’ll ask to be shown again. I miss the long, boring explanations about how every single part of a keyboard works and how they all mechanically and electronically mesh to put our finger taps into words on a screen

    I’m sorry for waxing nostalgia, it just kinda dawned on me I haven’t let him know I appreciated being taught those things because nowadays we just expect things to work and don’t question the “magic”

    • Zerush@lemmy.ml
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      11 hours ago

      In essence is very easy to understand, you can eg. multiplicate adding to logarrithm numbers, as said too rulers with logarrithm scale serve to multiplicate two numbers, same as two rulers with a normal cm scale can serve to add two numbers, putting the zero of one on eg. 4,5 cm of the other ruler and youll see that under the 3 cm of the first ruler, appears 7,5 cm. so you have calculed 4,5 + 3=7,5. The slide rulers work the same way, only that they use different logarithmm scales, whith which you can multiplicate, calculate angles, square roots and other, depending on the used scale. Thr magic of logarrithms-