Slide rules obsolete?
THE BATTALION Page 7
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1978
By LINDA SULLIVAN
I thanked my parents graciously
when I received a pocket calculator
Jhis Christmas. “May your
checkbook always balance,” the card
read. I wonder what my reaction
vould have been to a slide rule?
j As with several other liberal arts
majors, I have an acute aversion to
anything overly mathematical.
Therefore, when my high school
peers spoke of upcoming slide rule
meets, I ignored them lest I’d go
linto fits of algebraic convulsions.
After completing my high school
math requirement, I felt reborn. No
more undue stress attributed to un
proven proofs or uncomplementary
angle pairs. By the end of my senior
year, while I tuned out many arith
metic conversations, I didn’t seem
to have as many slide rule freaks to
dodge.
Advancing in leaps and bounds,
technology has placed yet another
mechanical device on the
endangered species list: the slide
rule.
The emergence of the inexpen
sive pocket calculator seems to be
the slide rule’s major predator. The
calculator boom has bad a definite
effect on area merchants, many of
whom are now caught with quan
tities of slide rules that no one
seems to be demanding.
Mrs. Frank W. Ish, an employee
of the Memorial Student Center
(MSC) Bookstore since 1956, says
she’s sold “thousands and
thousands” of slide rules in her
career; but within the six years she
has stocked calculators, her cal
culator sales have surpassed those of
the slide rules. Ish said the cal
culator price drop is the main reason
for the sagging slide rule market.
“Calculators offer the kids an in
stant answer with the correct data,
Ish says, ’’and it’s nearly impossible
to complete lots of homework each
night without one. The calculator is
just a revolution in math and the
students are compelled to get one.
Pat Messarra, in business for the
past six years at Advanced Business
Equipment, Inc., said calculators
are “just plain easier to use. Mes
sarra said her slide rule business has
never been tremendous. Sbe said
she sells two or three slide rules a
year, mainly to high school stu
dents. The biggest slide rule sale
she remembers was to an out-of-
towner who bought her entire stock
of slide rules which was six, for his
high school class.
Ellen Dyer of the Texas Aggie
Bookstore declares that the slide
rule market is just dead. She re
ceived a stock of them two years ago,
and still had 30 slide rules last
spring. Dyer said the slide rules cost
$30 retail, but she sold them for $5
“to get rid of them.
“Slide rules were going out for
less than cost. They’re not very prof
itable,” she said. Dyer said she does
not plan to stock slide rules any
longer.
In contrast, however, Martha
Camp of the University Bookstore
still has slide rules and will continue
to have them. But she admits cal
culators have their advantages.
“Calculators are easier and more
accurate,” she said, “there’s no
chance of interpretation. But she
feels there will always be a market
for slide rules because of the higher
price for calculators. Camp says her
slide rule buyers are usually univer
sity students who purchase them
not for classes, but for fun.
“It’s the best mental activity you
can buy,” Camp said.
Most students welcome the de
mise of the slide rule. Sophomore
chemical engineering major An
nette Grimsrud recalls her experi
ence with a slide rule from sixth
grade. Then, students competing in
University Interscholastic League
(UIL) Slide Rule had to meet after
school to learn slide rule technique
from their junior high school math
teacher. Grimsrud’s father, a civil
engineer, also helped her master
the device for the competition.
“There were only two from our
whole school in the competition,”
says Grimsrud, “even back then
(1970) it was getting obsolete; that’s
why nobody tried out.” Calculator
or slide rule? Grimsrud opts for the
calculator. Easier, perhaps?
“No, not really,” she answers,
“it’s called lazy.”
Sophomore civil engineering
major Jeff Mueller also prefers a cal
culator to a slide rule. Mueller val
ues the speed of the calculator and
says there is “less memory work re
quired.” Mueller was also once a
UIL Slide Rule competitor. At his
high school, the slide rule competi
tors were members of the math
ann
club. During his three-year mem
bership, Mueller says the number of
slide rule competitiors gradually de
creased from 25 percent club par
ticipation his sophomore year, to six
percent his senior year.
Dr. C. A. Rodenberger, assistant
dean of the College of Engineering,
doesn’t seem too concerned over
the slide rule-calculator debates.
Students turning to the calculators
don’t bother him.
“We’re teaching students to use
their minds,” he said. “The calcula
tion method doesn’t really matter.
Rodenberger said that with a slide
rule more time is spent in analysis
than with a calculator. The primary
drawback of the slide rule is keeping
track of the decimal point, he
added. Whether the students use a
slide rule or a calculator, Roden
berger only wants the students “to
get a feel for the answer.”
“I don’t care whether they use
longhand or a machine to speed it
up,” Rodenberger said.
Consequently, planned obsoles
cence might be making the slide
rule into collector’s item of tomor
row.
“It’s kind of like the space age
now, said MSC Bookstore em
ployee Ish. “I think it’s perfectly
marvelous that kids can work cal
culators. It gives them more time to
do something else if they ’re through
with their homework.
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Organizational
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MSC
7^30 p.m.
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