Reply #106: I was in the last generation of engineers trained to use the slide rule.

[hedgehog]

If I may make a comparison:

If you ever used a slide rule, you had a physical representation of logarithms in your hand and I think you understood logarithms better than someone for whom a log was just another button on a calculator.

(BTW - I am NOT advocating a return to the slide rule, just noting what we lost!)


With the metric system it's easier to run some calculations, provided you're using nice round numbers. On the other hand, using the English system you were forced to understand what you were doing and were very aware of the difference between mass and weight.

We had one teacher who used to drive us nuts by setting up apparently elaborate questions on exams. We'd all be sitting there whipping the slide rules back and forth trying to come up with an answer. Then, on the exam review, he'd show us that if we understood the concept involved, we could plot out data given in the question and come up with the answer simply and quickly. The moral of that story being, anyone can crunch numbers, but you have to understand what you're doing to come up with the right answer.