[ale] OT - Portable Drive

[Thompson Freeman]

On 12/11/2007 01:56:01 PM, Mike Harrison wrote:
>> though, my first device was a Trash-80. I understand the  
>> basic
>> principles of slide-rule function, but I've no practical  
>> experience.
> 
> My advanced chemistry teacher was a slide rule nut.
> He allowed their use in class, and if used, you only
> had to be right to 3 significant digits.
> 
> If you used a calculator, you had to be right to 7
> (not 8, he was reasonable), and yet, as people 'trusted'
> the calculator, they made mistakes and got the answers
> wrong due to cumulative error.

?? Chemistry problems to 7-8 place accuracy?? Most of the  
times I'm familiar with the _data_ isn't really good past 3  
places. There are calculations (equilibrium types are my  
favorite) where you need to carry large amounts of digits  
around in the middle of the solution process, but you can  
also pretty much just graph your way around most of those.

Significant Figures is a pet hot button of mine, and it  
seems that I'm often on the side of a minority opinion.

> 
> I used the slide rule, and often did hard manual math
> to 4 or 5 places to double check I was using it right.
> I got good grades, because I understood it was easier
> to be right at 3 significant digits.
> 
> --And to be on Linux: Am I one of the few users of 'bc'  
> left?
> 
> What a powerful tool, especially when doing weird math.
> 
> apt-get install bc
> bc
> 128^128
> 
> Is a good example of why it's useful. Lots of display  
> room. :)

Just for abusive giggles and chuckles - does anybody want  
to parse that value and write it out as an English  
sentence?? (ie - something of the type one thousand two  
hundred forty five).