In short, a slide rule is a
simple mechanical device which enables the user to perform many types of complex mathematical fuinctions.
Parts of the Slide Rule
The slide rule consists of three main parts.
- The body, stock or stator.
- The slide or slider.
- The cursor or indicator with hairline.
Some slide rules only have scales on one side called simplex and others have scales on both sided called duplex.
Scales
All slide rules have scales which are based on
logarithms. You will always find a
C and
D scale on a slide rule as these are the most important scales used for
multiplication and division. Depending on your slide rule, you may find many and different scales. Some of the other common scales are ...
A & B - Squares and Square Roots;
K - Cubes and Cube Roots;
L - Logarithms;
S - Sines and Cosines;
ST - Sines and Tangents of small angles; and
T - Tangents and Co-tangents
There are many other scales which enable the user to perform operation more quickly, for example the
folded scales (CF, DF) and
inverse scales (CI, DI).
