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A comment on Ask HN: Is there anyone here who still uses slide rules?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: Is there anyone here who still uses slide rules? by litoE on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @04:13PM (#46877372)
You don't have to multiply the powers of ten in your head. In your examples, the slider of the slide rule must be moved to the left of the body of the rule. This means the number of digits left of the decimal point in the answer is the sum of the number of digits left of the decimal point in the two multiplicands.

If the slider had been to the right of the body, the number of digits left of the decimal point in the answer is the sum of the number of digits left of the decimal point in the two multiplicands MINUS 1. .

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Re:Ask HN: Is there anyone here who still uses slide rules? by jonjacky on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @07:17PM (#46879469)
Yes. I don't recall doing this, though. Maybe because in scientific and engineering calculations we often worked in scientific notation so 'digits to the left of the decimal point' wasn't meaningful - we had to keep track of the exponents.
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