Before there were apps for tablets and smartphones, before mathematics education software was easily installed on personal computers, before electronic calculators entered professional practice and ...

While some (math-phobics) still may relish the simple beauty and non-threatening functionality of the abacus, there are those who have made the transition to more challenging computing gadgets—many ...

Unless you are above a certain age, the only time you may have seen a slide rule (or a slip stick, as we sometimes called them) is in the movies. You might have missed it, but slide rules show up in ...

Used by engineers for centuries, they were displaced by pocket calculators and all but forgotten until Mr. Shawlee created a subculture of obsessives and cornered the market. By Alex Traub For about ...

Before the smartphone, the laptop and the pocket calculator, there was a powerful mechanical computer. Our new series, Tools of the Trade, begins... The Slide Rule: A Computing Device That Put A Man ...

When you look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average or a bank statement or your receipt at the grocery local store, do you ever stop to think about how numbers are actually processed? (It’s OK – you won ...

WILLIAMSTOWN — They weren’t exactly a “fad” (you couldn’t wear one, a barber or hairdresser couldn’t shave or sculpt one), but slide rules nevertheless became what might be called academically ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Jerry Ross, along with about 200 other Purdue University alumni, have added their slide rules to a new exhibit at their alma mater that testifies ...