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Perhaps, in the Far Distant back of times, man in his need to somewhat quantify what he had collected to survive (animals or plants or fruits), needed to count, and his own fingers and toes became a good first instrument always available, so that easily got to 20 units. And his system was digital, quite advanced, in contrast with the slide rule we try to deal with herein, which is analogical, so that the figure above has nothing to do with the slide rule. An apology is kindly offered to the reader for the unintended mixture we got in.

Introduction: In persons with type 1 diabetes (T1D) insulin dosing can be adjusted based on trend arrows derived from continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). We propose a slide rule with narrower blood glucose intervals and more classes of insulin sensitivity than are available in current models. Methods: The slide rule was tested in silico, in which a meal was simulated in 100 virtual subjects and the insulin bolus was calculated either in the standard way based on the insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio and the correction factor or according to the slide rule, following which the percentage time spent in range (70–180 mg/dl; %TIR), hypoglycemia (< 70 mg/dl; %THYPO), and hyperglycemia (> 180 mg/dl; %THYPER) was compared between the methods during the 4 h after the meal. Slide rule performance was also tested in real life by analyzing the same variables at during the 4 h postprandial period in 27 individuals with T1D. Only meals starting while the rate of change was at least 1 mg/dl per minute (increasing or decreasing) were considered for analysis. Results: In silico, when the preprandial trend arrow was increasing, our slide rule reduced %THYPER and increased %TIR (p < 0.05), whereas when the preprandial trend arrow was decreasing, it reduced %THYPO and slightly increased %THYPER (p < 0.05). In real life, our slide rule kept subjects on target for 70.8 and 91.6% of postprandial time when preprandial trend arrows were increasing or decreasing, respectively. Conclusion: The proposed slide rule performed well both in silico and in real life, suggesting that it could be safely adopted by individuals with T1D to improve glucose control.

Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Thematik der Regenwasserversickerung mithilfe von Bodenfiltermulden und wie die Dimensionierung dieser mittels eines Planungshilfsmittels vereinfacht werden könnte. Für jegliche Art von Bauwerken im urbanen Bereich ist Regenwasserentsorgung zunehmend von Bedeutung. Gute Ideen aus den Wettbewerben scheitern oft an der Umsetzbarkeit aufgrund von Platzmangel und hohen Kosten, die aber bei frühzeitiger Einbindung der Systeme, in der Vorentwurfsphase, planbar bzw. vermeidbar wären. Das Ziel der Arbeit ist die Konzeptionierung dieses Hilfsmittels und beschreibt die Zusammenhänge der einzelnen Parameter sowie die Anwendungsgrenzen und Voraussetzungen. This paper deals with the topic of rainwater infiltration with the help of soil filter troughs and how the dimensioning of these could be simplified by means of a planning aid. Rainwater disposal is becoming increasingly important for all kinds of buildings in urban areas. Good ideas from competitions often fail due to lack of space and high costs, which could be planned or avoided if the systems were integrated early on in the preliminary design phase. The aim of the work is to conceptualise this tool and describe the interrelationships of the individual parameters as well as the application limits and prerequisites.

The advanced scientific lectures, in which the contents the learners had not yet learned are utilized, have been held in Naruto University of Education from 2013. The number of the students who finished the learning was almost one hundred in the previous course. Three students who were in the 5th，6th and 7th grade joined the advanced mathematics lecture course in 2016. In this paper, we show the contents of mathematics lecture course the three students attended, especially the consideration about the net of the torus and the principle of the slide rule. Through the experience of teaching them in the advanced mathematics lecture course, we reconstruct teaching materials − the net of torus and the principle of the slide rule − for higher grade school students. We also show teaching plans for the upper school year students in this paper. We already held the lesson of the net of the torus for high school students according our teaching plan. In our future work, we will try to make the lesson of the principle of the slide rule in high school and university, and we would like to discuss about teaching materials and teaching plans.

For the last decades approach to mathematical calculations has changed radically. On change by the account, to arithmometers, slide rules and calculators computers have come. The expert not able to put into practice knowledge to make mathematical calculations by means of the computer can be hardly considered as a high quality. In order that it was possible to use the computer for the solution of mathematical tasks it is necessary to construct at first mathematical, and then and computer model of this task. In article the analysis of a concept of model is carried out the place of the substantial line “Formalization and modeling” in a school course of informatics are analyzed and methodical recommendations for increase in learning efficiency of the substantial line “Formalization and modeling in a school course of informatics” are offered.In article the analysis of the basic concept of the Formalization and modeling in a school course of informatics is carried out features of studying of the Formalization and Modeling line in a school course of informatics in different textbooks. The article will be useful to teachers of informatics and also the student studying mathematics to teachers, and also the experts as obliges facing need of mathematical data processing, creation of mathematical and computer models and interpretation of the received results.

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar uma atividade contendo uma situação problema norteadora que descreve a taxa de crescimento da população infectada por uma doença viral. Sua solução envolve a função exponencial na criação de um modelo e a aproximação de valores de logaritmos de base 10 com a régua de cálculo. Essa atividade faz parte da dissertação de Mestrado de uma das autoras que busca voltar a atenção dos educadores para a utilização de situações-problema e material manipulativo como ferramentas que visam despertar o interesse e a participação dos discentes no processo de ensino e aprendizagem. Com o intuito de verificar a eficiência de tais estratégias didáticas no ensino da Matemática, realizou-se uma pesquisa com alunos do primeiro ano do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS). Os resultados obtidos sugerem que os recursos didáticos utilizados são cativantes e capazes de aproximar o mundo matemático dos discentes.

Historically, the practice of medicine has been a physically intimate endeavor. Physicians have used their hands to palpate and reveal the secrets hidden within the body. Smelling the breath for the ketosis of diabetes or tasting the skin for the saltiness of cystic fibrosis were among the physician's essential practices. Today, perhaps the most defining characteristic of a brilliant clinician is the ability to synthesize many images-from electrocardiograms, ultrasounds, CT scans, and so forth-into a coherent picture that can guide our diagnosis and treatment. Yet this is rapidly becoming a Sisyphean task. Just as we are about to drown in a deluge of data, AI is throwing us a life preserver, to save not only our patients but ourselves. But where will AI take us?

Esta dissertação busca voltar à atenção dos educadores para a utilização de quatro metodologias de ensino: Situações Problema, Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação, História da Matemática e Material Concreto, tendo como objetivo apresentar atividades diferenciadas envolvendo o estudo de funções exponenciais e logarítmicas. Estas ferramentas visam despertar o interesse e a participação dos discentes no processo de ensino e aprendizagem. Com o intuito de verificar a eficiência de tais estratégias didáticas no ensino da Matemática, realizou-se uma pesquisa com alunos do primeiro ano do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS). Os resultados obtidos sugerem que os recursos didáticos utilizados são cativantes e capazes de aproximar o mundo matemático dos discentes. This dissertation intends to show the use of four teaching methodologies: problem solving, information and communication technologies, History of Mathematics and manipulatives. This study aims to present differentiated activities involving the teaching of exponential and logarithmic functions. The use of these methodologies should enhance students interest on the learning process. In order to verify the efficiency of the practice and the didactic strategies applied to build the activities, students of the first year of the Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS) were invited to solve them. The results obtained suggest that the didactic resources used are attractive and capable of bringing the mathematical world closer to the students.

Q uick and accurate tree height measurement has always been a goal of foresters. The techniques and technology to measure height were developed long ago—even the earliest textbooks on mensuration showcased hypsometers (e.g., Schlich 1895, Mlodziansky 1898, Schenck 1905, Graves 1906), and approaches to refine these sometimes remarkable tools appeared in the first issues of Forestry Quarterly, Proceedings of the Society of American Foresters, and the Journal of Forestry. For example, one such hypsometer based on the geometric principle of similar triangles (top of Figure 1) employed rotary mirrors to allow the user to simultaneously see the top and bottom of the tree in “proper parallax” (Tieman 1904). Other early hypsometers applied different approaches that used angles and distance (e.g., Graves 1906, Detwiler 1915, Noyes 1916, Krauch 1918). Of these trigonometric hypsometers, those that calculated total tree height (HT) as a function of the tangent of the angles to the top (B2) and bottom (B1) of the tree and a baseline horizontal distance (b) to the stem were most common (Figure 1). Because they are easy to apply and required only simple technology, these approaches (hereafter, the similar triangles and tangent methods) have dominated tree height measurement. That is not to say the challenge of accurate tree height measurement was solved— many early foresters reported problems with getting consistent data in uneven terrain or dense understories or with the use of different types of hypsometers. Good measurement practices usually mitigated these issues and became standard components of forester training programs. Others addressed these challenges by designing new techniques based on different trigonometric relationships. As an example, Haig (1925) proposed a slide rule solution that calculated tree height using the sine law and slope distance from the observer to the tree base (s1)

The centuries-long and widespread use of the slide rule qualifies it as one of the most important computing artifacts of historical capitalism to date. Yet, the literature on the history of computing with the slide rule is extremely limited. This chapter offers an introduction to the history of the slide rule based on the presentation of the slide rule in engineering and other technical texts. The emphasis is placed on retrieving and interpreting representative comparisons between the various versions of slide rules and between slide rules and other computing artifacts, mostly calculating machines (mechanical calculators).

This chapter supplements the overview of the history of the slide rule of the preceding chapter by detailed histories of discussions concerning the slide rule in a key context of use, that of energy-related calculations. It starts with an introduction to the multitude of classes of slide rules that were used in this context (Sect. 3.2) before moving on to focus on discussions of relevance to the mechanical era, through research based on the journal Power (Sect. 3.3), and the electrical era, through research on a set of journals that included the General ElectricReview (Sect. 3.4). Considering that the use of the slide rule for electricity-related calculations was especially wide, the chapter refers to it in order to elaborate on some of the issues raised in the preceding chapter: the presentation of the slide rule as intelligent and therefore universal computing artifact, the advance of an argument that attributed accuracy to skillful social use (and training to such use) rather than to some inherent technical advantage, and the refusal to consider accuracy independently from a broader set of variables, of which the most central was the cost (these are recurring issues in Sects. 3.4.1, 3.4.2, 3.4.3, and 3.4.4).

Calculating tables and graphs, the two classes of calculating artifacts covered in this chapter, exemplify a mode of computing that seems to have been as little (if at all) mechanical as possible. They are treated together for an additional reason: tables were usually generated from graphs and vice versa. In many cases, the two were also used complementary. The construction and use of calculating tables and graphs could actually involve several other calculating artifacts, from slide rules to ones that exemplified the highest degree of mechanization (some versions of analyzers). In some cases, tables and graphs were used as components of an expensive standard or unique calculating artifact; in others, expensive calculating artifacts had been used to generate a table or a graph. The process could start from empirical data, collected at the interface of engineering or other encounter with nature, or, from the other end, plans to change nature according to laboratory rehearsals.

From the perspective of the degree of mechanization (machine to human capital, constant to variable capital), some of the machines presented in this chapter should be placed at the one end of the spectrum of technologies of calculation-computation of the mechanical and electrical eras, whereas some of the graphs presented in Chap. 5 should be placed at the other. The calculating machines (mechanical calculators) presented in Chap. 6 and the slide rules presented in Chaps. 2 and 3 would fill the space in between. If we had to choose one name to refer to the great variety of the machines and associated mechanisms of this chapter, this would have to be “analyzer.”

The history of computing before the electronic era is frequently reduced to the history of calculating and tabulating machines, which are a posteriori designated it as digital and therefore qualify to be considered direct ancestors of our electronic computer. As I perceive it, we face a two-dimensional historiographical challenge. We have to check if it is correct to privilege the history of computing with calculating and tabulating machines when it comes to the mechanical and the electrical eras. At the same time, we have to explain why computing with calculating and tabulating machines emerged as the privileged ancestor of electronic computing. The understudied history of the comparatively limited use of calculating and tabulating machines in engineering offers a contrast that is worth considering when it comes to address the aforementioned challenge. More specifically, in response to the first dimension of the aforementioned challenge, I will in this chapter present evidence that suggests that calculating and tabulating machines were not as important in engineering as we would expect based on the canonical emphasis on these machines as inherently technically superior. On the other hand, in response to the second dimension of this historiographical challenge, I will present evidence that shows that, in comparison to other computing artifacts of the 1914 Exhibition (e.g., in comparison to slide rules), calculating machines were more compatible with the pursuit of the further advancement of the capitalist division-of-computing labor.

International audience; AWE (UK), IRSN (France), LLNL (USA) and ORNL (USA) began a long term collaboration effort in 2015 to update the nuclear criticality Slide Rule for the emergency response to a nuclear criticality accident. This document, published almost 20 years ago, gives order of magnitude estimates of key parameters, such as number of fissions and doses (neutron and gamma), useful for emergency response teams and public authorities. This paper will present, firstly the motivation and the long term objectives for this update, then the overview of the initial configurations for updated calculations and preliminary results obtained with modern 3D codes.

When does your computer need a slide rule? When it is the UNIVAC II. This 1950s circular slide rule from Remington Rand was used by programmers to optimize how the mainframe executed instructions. The computer had a drum memory that was constantly rotating, and the most efficient program would position the drum so that the next instruction would begin executing wherever the current instruction finished. Instructions were thus scattered across the drum and not physically adjacent to one another. To minimize rotational delays, a programmer had to figure out each instruction’s execution time in order to queue up the next command, an approach called minimum latency programming. Though the slide rule wasn’t strictly necessary to make those calculations, it probably helped

This article is about history, innovation, organizations, and people. Although the author largely constrains himself to topics that have been developed during the past few years, like George Stibitz did in 1946, he returns to older stories to illuminate the fundamental themes and values of the computer age.

On the 6th of March this year, the seemingly immortal Prof. Hans Bethe passed away, at the ripe age of ninety eight. His mighty mathematical prowess, coupled with his amazing virtuosity in applying the tools of theoretical physics, helped him make original contributions to an astonishingly large number of topics in theoretical and applied physics. In this age of hyperspecialization and super computers, Bethe steered his path through the myriad problems at the frontiers of physics and kept on calculating numbers on his trusted slide rule. In this article we will discuss one of his great contributions that fetched him utmost satisfaction, in addition to the Nobel Prize.

Aiming at the rule-based recognition system for architectural structure drawings (ASDs), this paper presents a sample-based method that will automatically extract the geometric features of architectural objects and convert the features into recognition rules. When users designate the first sample of one type of objects, this method automatically analyzes and extracts the features useful for drawing recognition. Aided by a little interactive operation, recognition rules for this type of objects are generated. When a new sample of one object is designated through automatically comparing the new features and the old, this method analyzes and modifies the features of this object, then generates new rules. Along with new object types or new representations of old types are processed, rules of the recognition system are perfected continuously without modifying the program. This method can bring to the drawing recognition system higher self-adaptability and practicability.

UNLABELLED We describe the development and evaluation of a simple slide rule that enables the bedside determination of the infusion rate for a particular target plasma concentration of propofol. The infusion rate to reach this target concentration at time (t) is the product of the target concentration, body weight, and a correction factor that depends on the time elapsed from the start of the initial infusion. Our target-controlled infusion (TCI) slide rule, constructed along this principle, performs the multiplications, analogous to the principle of the classical slide rule, as addition of logarithms. We calculated the percentage deviation of the predicted concentration obtained by STANPUMP versus predicted concentrations obtained using the infusion rates determined from the TCI slide rule. The evaluation using STANPUMP simulations showed, for a constant target concentration of 3 micro g/mL of propofol, a mean deviation of 4.05% (max, 6.97%) in the first 15 min and a mean deviation of 0.5% (max, 2.03%) between 16 and 300 min. The mean deviation after changing the target from 3 micro g/mL to 1, 2, 4, or 5 micro g/mL ranged from 1.15% to 17.76%. This pocket-sized TCI slide rule combines the advantages of minimal financial and technical cost with reasonable accuracy. IMPLICATIONS We describe the development and evaluation of a simple slide rule that enables the bedside determination of the required infusion rate for a particular target plasma concentration. This pocket-sized target-controlled infusion slide rule combines the advantages of minimal financial and technical cost with reasonable accuracy.

Design analysis and simulation techniques have come a long way from the days of slide rules and drafting tables. The next step, claims Jim Spann of Blue Ridge Numerics, is putting fluid flow simulation capabilities into the hands of multi-tasking design engineers, potentially saving costs and energy further along in the filtration process.

As an undergraduate I was taught to multiply two numbers with the help of log tables, using the formulaHaving graduated to teach calculus to Engineers, I learned that log tables were to be replaced by slide rules. It was then that Imade the fateful decision that there was no need for me to learn how to use this tedious device, as I could always rely on the students to perform the necessary computations. In the course of time, slide rules were replaced by pocket calculators and personal computers, but I stuck to my original decision.My computer phobia did not prevent me from taking an interest in the theoretical question: what is a computation? This question goes back to Hilbert's 10th problem (see Browder [1976]), which asks for an algorithm, or computational procedure, to decide whether any given polynomial equation is solvable in integers. It quickly leads to the related question: which numerical functionsf: ℕn→ ℕ are computable?While Hilbert's 10th problem was only resolved in 1970, this related question had some earlier answers, of which I shall single out the following three:(1)f is recursive(Gödel, Kleene),(2)f is computable on an abstract machine(Turing, Post),(3)f is definable in the untyped λ-calculus(Church, Kleene).These tentative answers were shown to be equivalent by Church [1936] and Turing [1936–7].I shall discuss here some of the more recent developments of these notions of computability and their relevance to linguistics and logic. I hope to be forgiven for dwelling on some of the work I have been involved with personally, with greater emphasis than is justified by its historical significance.

Computer programs that predict HVAC system noise are now common. But, what was the basis of the design of the programs, what are the noise control assumptions? This paper will present how the 1984 ASHRAE Chapter 37 Sound and Vibration from the Systems Handbook was converted into a computer program and the limitations that were found in the chapter and how they were modified to more accurately predict the HVAC system noise and it control. This program has been updated 4 times over the years and is now an EXCEL bolt on.

The Canadian Standard CAN/CSA-S37-M86 “Antennas, towers and antenna supporting structures” follows a quasi-limit states approach in which the member forces determined for specified loads are multiplied by a unified factor and compared with factored resistances given in CAN3-S16.1-M84. This results in designs basically the same as those resulting from a working stress design with a factor of safety of 5/3. Such structures exhibit a non-linear structural behaviour even under service loads. Thus the effect of ice accretion and direct interaction between wind and ice does not permit the load factors specified in CAN/CSA-S16.1-M89 “Limit states design of steel structures” to be directly applied to antenna supporting structures.In this study, 41 different towers (representing various heights and designed for different ice classes and wind pressures) were analyzed under specified loads and then under a set of factored loads. From the comparison of the design forces in the towers with those calculated according to the existing standard, a set of partial load factors was derived. The new load factors to be used in the 1993 edition of S37 are presented and justified. Key words: antenna towers, guyed towers, ice and wind loads, limit states design, self-supporting towers, working stress design.

The rapid technological advancement of past decades changed significantly the way young engineers are educated these days. A large selection of numerical tools widely available on personal computers or pocket calculators is being applied where tables, nomograms or a slide rule were used in the past. It has been observed that despite of the gained time efficiency, high versatility and extreme precision, some students became largely affected through overuse of these tools and as a consequence became unable to verify obtained results by common sense and estimation. This paper presents once orthodox, currently unorthodox approach of using a highly customized circular-slide-rule and an associated simulator in electrical engineering courses in order to assist students develop a feel for what a sensible answer ought to be and thus help students to become less likely to make errors in the order of magnitude or false precision. This is because questioning a result in slide rule calculations is a necessary step leading to decimal point errors being de facto eliminated. By using the slide rule and practicing mental math to determine the result’s order of magnitude, students gradually become conscious of scales as well as become aware of precision and tolerance implications in engineering. Our slide rule can be customized in terms of a number of mathematical functions available plus the unused empty space can be populated by frequently used formulas or conversion tables specific to an individual subject area. Our slide rule was first applied in a classroom in 2007 with not so wide acceptance and reintroduced in 2011 with more positive results. A number of examples with classroom observations including a student feedback are presented.

It is always difficult to find traces of the inventors of calculating instruments. There is not always patent, and archives of companies often end up on the shelf. In favour of a collector discovering an instrument not listed in the catalogue Graphoplex, we backtracked to the source. Starting, we found the man, his history and a set of five rules for calculating shipping. It has seemed important to trace this history to understand the boundary between life on one side and what remains of the other. The instruments Navyrout are relegated to the ranks of collectors' items. After reading this article, we look otherwise., Il est toujours difficile de retrouver les traces des inventeurs d'instruments de calcul. Il n'y a pas toujours de brevet, et les archives d'entreprises finissent souvent aux oubliettes. A la faveur d'un collectionneur découvrant un instrument non répertorié au catalogue Graphoplex, nous avons remonté jusqu'à la source. A partir de l'objet, nous avons retrouvé l'homme, son histoire et celle d'un ensemble de cinq règles à calcul maritime. Il nous a paru important de retracer cette histoire pour mieux saisir la frontière entre la vie d'un côté et ce qui reste de l'autre. Les instruments Navyrout sont relégués au rang des objets de collection. Après la lecture de cet article, nous les regarderons autrement.

Introduction The theme of a transform arises frequently. It entails transforming a problem into a setting where the new problem can be solved more easily and then applying the inverse transform to bring the solution back to the desired form. This is the general idea behind the fast Fourier transform (FFT) in a finite field for doing fast multiplication of large integers with absolute precision. Possible applications are to primality testing and cryptography where perfect accuracy is crucial. Long ago in the seventeenth century, one highly effective use of a transform to make multiplication more tractable had been discovered, and was indispensable up to the computer age. In 1614 John Napier invented logarithms which transformed the multiplication problem into simple addition of exponents. Shortly after, Edward Gunter and William Oughtred built the powerful mechanical realization: the slide rule ([4, p. 247]).

The computer is a chameleon that becomes calculator, sketch pad, file cabinet, or typewriter, depending on the program run on it. It is so good at simulating tools and media of different disciplines that it often ends up virtually replacing them. The typewriter and the turntable have followed the slide rule as the latest victims of the computer's seductive mimetic genius. Its facility for emulation not only makes the computer a great working convenience but enables it to bridge media by combining their components in powerful new ways.

It is noted that two-by-two S-matrices in multilayer optics can be represented by the Sp(2) group whose algebraic property is the same as the group of Lorentz transformations applicable to two space-like and one time-like dimensions. It is noted also that Wigner's little groups have a sliderule-like property which allows us to perform multiplications by additions. It is shown that these two mathematical properties lead to a cyclic representation of the S-matrix for multilayer optics, as in the case of ABCD matrices for laser cavities. It is therefore possible to write the N-layer S-matrix as a multiplication of the N single-layer S-matrices resulting in the same mathematical expression with one of the parameters multiplied by N. In addition, it is noted, as in the case of lens optics, multilayer optics can serve as an analogue computer for the contraction of Wigner's little groups for internal space-time symmetries of relativistic particles., Comment: RevTex 13 pages, Secs. IV and V revised and expanded

Why should we care about logarithms? In the days prior to pocket calculators (long before my time), logarithms were useful for performing complicated computations. Financial analysts would multiply large numbers by summing their logarithms, and they would divide them by subtracting their logarithms. For example, given a base of 4, we can multiply 16 times 8 by raising the number 4 to the 3.5 power, which is the sum of the logarithms 2 and 1.5. Of course, you might argue that it would have been easier to multiply large numbers directly than to raise a base to a fractional power. In the olden days, however, an analyst would use a slide rule, which is a ruler with a sliding central strip marked with logarithmic scales.

Of course, words aren’t magic. Neither are sextants, compasses, maps, slide rules and all the other paraphenelia which have accreted around the basic biological brains of homo sapiens. In the case of these other tools and props, however, it is transparently clear that they function so as to either carry out or to facilitate computational operations important to various human projects. The slide rule transforms complex mathematical problems (ones that would baffle or tax the unaided subject) into simple tasks of perceptual recognition. The map provides geographical information in a format well-suited to aid complex planning and strategic military operations. The compass gathers and displays a kind of information that (most) unaided human subjects do not seem to command. These various tools and props thus act to generate information, or to store it, or to transform it, or some combination of the three. In so doing, they impact our individual and collective problemsolving capacities in much the same dramatic ways as various software packages impact the performance of a simple pc.

This Volume 2 contains the functional version of the updated nuclear criticality slide rule (more accurately, sliding graphs) that is referenced in An Updated Nuclear Criticality Slide Rule: Technical Basis, NUREG/CR-6504, Vol. 1 (ORNL/TM-13322/V1). This functional slide rule provides a readily usable {open_quotes}in-hand{close_quotes} method for estimating pertinent nuclear criticality accident information from sliding graphs, thereby permitting (1) the rapid estimation of pertinent criticality accident information without laborious or sophisticated calculations in a nuclear criticality emergency situation, (2) the appraisal of potential fission yields and external personnel radiation exposures for facility safety analyses, and (3) a technical basis for emergency preparedness and training programs at nonreactor nuclear facilities. The slide rule permits the estimation of neutron and gamma dose rates and integrated doses based upon estimated fission yields, distance from the fission source, and time-after criticality accidents for five different critical systems. Another sliding graph permits the estimation of critical solution fission yields based upon fissile material concentration, critical vessel geometry, and solution addition rate. Another graph provides neutron and gamma dose-reduction factors for water, steel, and concrete. Graphs from historic documents are provided as references for estimating critical parameters of various fissile material systems. Conversion factors for various English and metric units are provided for quick reference.

During the first 50 years of the American Vacuum Society (1953–2003), technology has advanced greatly. But the most impressive and conspicuous advance has been in computational power, due to the exponential increase in computing power at an exponentially decreasing cost per function. Many of our readers will remember the “Macro-Mechanical System” called a slide rule that was symbolic of engineers and scientists in the 1950s and 1960s. From the slide rule of the past to today’s desktop and notebook computers, possessing speed, storage, and power capability that dwarf the mainframes of the recent past, what a transformation!

Self-management is important, but difficult, in children with diabetes. A color-coded slide rule containing a color scheme representing a treatment algorithm might help diabetic children with self-management (1). Moving the slide rule to the right moment of the day reveals a color that corresponds to the glucose value. The slide rule will describe the correct action to be undertaken. These actions include taking extra insulin but can also include consuming more carbohydrates, as well as ketone monitoring, blood glucose checking, or consulting a diabetes expert. The amount of insulin …