On Oct 19, 6:17*am, "Julie Bove" > wrote:
> "Ophelia" > wrote in message
>
> ...
>
>
>
>
>
> > "Julie Bove" > wrote in message
> ...
>
> >> "NOYDB" <ljlameres at acd.net> wrote in message
> . ..
> >>>I find that I frequently want to adjust a recipe up or down in
> >>> quantity. I use an old slide rule to set up the original proportion (
> >>> set the 1 over the adjusted quantity; 2, 3, .5, whatever ) then read
> >>> the new quantity directly under the original quantity. Sometimes
> >>> there's a problem in measuring the new quantity exactly though.
>
> >>> Anyway I was wondering if anybody else does this or if I'm just an old
> >>> geek. I started using a sliderule studying electronics in the '70's.
>
> >> I've never even used a slide rule! *I don't even know what they are
> >> really. I think my dad had one though.
>
> > I think it is the foreunner of a calculator but I might be wrong
>
> Could be. *I am old enough that I remember when calculators came out. *They
> were very expensive. *We were never allowed to have them in school. *These
> days they are a requirement.
>
> My first calculator was a solar one. *It required very strong light to use
> it. *Bought another one a couple of years later that works even in dim
> light. *I still have it but it's starting to look decrepit. *Still works
> though.

I remember when the first calculators became available in the early
70's. A friend of my dad's brought his new calculator over to show it
off. This calculator cost 800 dollars (this was in 1971 dollars), and
all it did was added, subtracted, multiplied, divided, and gave the
square root.

By the time I was in high school in the late 70's, we were only
allowed to use calculators in upper-level science and math classes,
like Chemistry, Physics, Trig and Calculus.