Simplifying Slide Rule Calculations with Trig

[Bob the Science Guy] remembers how to use a slide rule. Even after all these years, it is pretty easy to remember how to multiply and divide. Simplifying Slide Rule Calculations with Trig.

If you can’t remember, you can usually work it out, as long as you understand how slide rules work. [Bob’s] been making videos about topics like this, and if you’ve wanted to put your slide rule collection to practical use, you’ll enjoy these videos. The trick to the slide rule is that it is deceptively simple.

You are in effect adding logarithms and then taking an antilog. The issue is that you still have to have some intuition about the scale of the answer since 2×3 works out the same as 2×3000 or 200×300. Adding and subtracting is not easy on the slide rule.