Archaic

Andy and I laughed at this one. It’s one more reminder of how archaic we are. We did our arithmetic by hand in grammar and high schools — in college we used slide rules. We didn’t get our first calculators until I was about 35 and Andy 40. We still think they were a great invention.

Do you have a calculator? Do you ever feel archaic?

 

This entry was posted in Life As a Shared Adventure. Bookmark the permalink.

13 Responses to Archaic

  1. Mike says:

    I first used a slide rule in high school, then college and Navy Nuclear Power School. In the late 70s, I barely failed a requalification exam when I was an instructor at the Naval Reactor Facility in Idaho when they calculated the score by calculator. Then they went back and calculated it by slide rule… and I passed.

    We don’t have a stand-alone calculator any more. Karen threw our last one away a couple of months ago due to sticking keys. We now just use the apps on our phones or computers.

    • Jean says:

      Andy still uses our hand-held calculators. They’re all programmable, and I think he uses those features sometimes. I use the calculator that comes on the Mac, and I use it in RPN mode — a nice touch. If I have a string of numbers to sum I use Digits because it lets me check to be sure I entered all the numbers correctly.

  2. Looney says:

    I still have my slide rule. Never liked calculators because a slide rule has a much better straight edge for making sketches and free-body diagrams.

  3. tammy j says:

    I would never have passed chemistry if it hadn’t been for nubby beardsley and his slide rule!
    and YES! I have an OLD pocket calculator that I use frequently. I love it.
    remember in grammar school having to do page after page of long division?
    wonder if kids can even do that now!
    but then I guess they don’t have to. 🙂

    • Jean says:

      I don’t remember the long division so much, but I remember missing 9 out of 12 problems on a multiplication worksheet in 7th or 8th grade. By then I had done so many my eyes would glaze over and my mind would go on strike. 🙂

  4. Rummuser says:

    No, I do not have or use a calculator. In fact, I am in the process of publishing a blog post in which I talk about calculators. My tryst with sums precedes even calculators.

  5. Linda Sand says:

    Yes. Yes. 🙂

  6. Cathy in NZ says:

    I think I may still have my “shopping calculator” as it was one of my first “me purchases” and I bought it to compare brand$ when doing the food shopping…but I happen to know it’s bust!

    I had to get a scientific calculator when I did a course at University…late last year I gave it to my great nephew as he was to begin high school this year. I hope he is getting some use, and not lost it…

    I have a very interesting ruler – except I don’t know what it’s for…it may well be a slide rule as it has lots of notations all over it – brand is Faber Castell and Made in Germany copyright 1957 (but I don’t think it’s that old…)

    • Jean says:

      Faber Castell did make slide rules. They have a web page about the history of slide rules.

    • Cathy in NZ says:

      okay thanks…this one is a wood one, quite narrow as such but has extra pull out parts and a plastic “window-slide” – on the reverse side a kind of measurement guide inc decimal equivalents of 1 foot; various scales inc lbs –> kilo; weight of metals…various geometry language…

      and it has it’s own “case, plastic and well used looking…

Comments are closed.