> By the mid-1960s, more than a million slide rules were sold in the US each year. The device became for the mathematically minded what the stethoscope was for the physician: a badge of professionalism as well as a practical tool.<p>My understanding is that the act of internalizing the meaning of the exponents is a tremendous enabler of understanding; engineers of old achieved a better feel for the task than us moderns with all of the fancy software.<p>Restated: there may be some good pedagogy in having the initial course or two do things in a classical way ahead of moving on to all of the new methods.
> In an epilogue, Houston compares the fate of the calculator to that of an alien species in the science fiction of Iain M. Banks, which becomes so advanced that it ‘sublimes’ from the physical universe altogether to settle in higher dimensions.<p>Really nice comparison.
Off topic, but I'm curious about the lack of capitalization for "Nasa" (sic). Is this an oversight by the editor or a style guide choice? "BBC" is capitalized in another article, so presumably it's just a typo?
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