Calculator Wars at your School

[Liamtoh Resu]

When I was in high school, 1971-1975, I had a sterling plastic slider rule that
you could buy at a five and dime store (the forerunner of the dollar stores).

In my sophomore year the math department aquired at least one hp-35 calculator
which I was allowed to take home overnight or the weekend.

During this time we had access to a ncr century computer via paper tape in BASIC
or Fortran and COBOL via punch card. I did simpson's rule in COBOL :) and basic
and fortran.

The slide rule was used for chemistry and physics. The BASIC language came in
handy when grokking data. I used the hp35 to crunch numbers for a
parabolic reflector for which an article was published in scientific american.

Later on I used a TI58 with a printer to crunch some numbers. I did a bubble sort
and did some creative string handling. Of course with the TI58, there was
no persistent memory so keying in and using the program was a bit problematical.

...

Thanks