Derek's Virtual Slide Rule Gallery A gallery of clickable simulated slide rules.

Pickett N909-ES SIMPLEX TRIG RULE with METRIC CONVERSION

Pickett N3-T POWER LOG EXPONENTIAL LOG LOG DUAL BASE

Pickett N904-T TRIG and DECIMAL KEEPER SPEED RULE

Pickett N525-ES StatRule

Pickett N4-ES Vector-Type LOG LOG DUAL BASE SPEED RULE

Pickett 160-ES MICROLINE

Pickett N600-ES LOG LOG SPEED RULE



If you're not sure about how to use a slide rule, take a look at Slide Rule Calculations by Example (opens in new window). It's a self-guided demo that demonstrates different calculations by simple examples.

UPDATE Sep 2015: After ten years online, this site is getting painful to update and maintain. To simplify that process, I've created at auxiliary tumblr site at slide-rules.tumblr.com. I'll eventually copy over some of the important things to that site, where it will be fun and easy to add comments and things like that!

UPDATE Dec 2013: Finally, at long last, you can simulate a slide rule on an iPad! Bob Roswell over at The Computer Museum has edited the Pickett N3 so it's usable on a tablet. The page can be found HERE!

UPDATE Apr 2011: Timothy Scott has converted the N600-ES rule to an Android app so it can run on smart phones. Now the virtual N600 is truly as portable as an analog original. The app can be downloaded HERE.

UPDATE Feb 2009: Bob Denny has packaged all the slide rules into a single, self-contained ZIP file, which makes them much easier to use offline. It's no longer necessary to separately save all the various elements as described below. The zipfile can be found HERE.

UPDATE Oct 2007: Stefan Vorkoetter has created a great simulation of a Aristo Multilog Nr. 970 complete with a numeric readout of the cursor position! It's really useful if you're unfamiliar with reading the various scales.

UPDATE 2: The examples page now explains how to raise numbers to powers with log-log scales.

UPDATE 3: Jonathan Foote scanned and emailed an old four-pager, HOW TO USE YOUR PICKETT SLIDE RULE. It's a beginner-oriented document, but it's goes into some details about how to read the scales and what the tick-marks mean. Here are the pages as jpg files: 1 2 3 4 .

If you feel confident in your slide rule skillz, maybe you'll be interested in some Slide Rule Tricks.

This gallery made possible with Drag & Drop for Images & Layers.

Questions and comments from around the world:

Would there be any chance of producing the simulations as freestanding applications, able to operate without access to the internet? So that instead of calling up a calculator to do a little calculation, I could call up a slide rule. C.C., Australia

Hello, If you had the .html file, and all the image files and the JavaScript file in a directory on your computer, then you could open the html file locally and it would run without access to the internet. (That's how I developed them, locally on my computer. Then I put it on the internet when it was done.) I tried to save the files all at once by doing "Save Page, Complete HTML" in both IE and Mozilla, but it didn't work. The JavaScript switches some images dynamically, so it fails when you try looking at the opposite side of the ruler. I tried the following steps and it seemed to work OK: - Save the webpage to a local folder, as HTML only. - Manually right-click on and save the images of the: - front stator top, - front slider - front stator bottom. - little end pieces at right and left. - Flip the rule, and save - the back stator top - back slider - back stator bottom. - Save the following two files into the same folder: http://www.antiquark.com/sliderule/sim/transparentpixel.gif http://www.antiquark.com/sliderule/sim/wz_dragdrop.js Now when you click on the HTML file, it should open a browser and have the simulation running, without internet access. For some reason, IE gives a security warning before you can use it. I'm not sure why. Anyways, let me know if that still doesn't work, I'm glad to help... Derek.

Can I translate your page "Slide Rule Calculations by Example" on slide rules to the Italian language, with your permission? I'll refer you as original author (with link to your page if you want). I am an Italian slide rule collector. Thank you very much for your courteous answer, E.R., Italy

Hello E. R., Yes, go right ahead. Once your page is done, let me know, and I'll put a link to it. (I still have to do an explanation of log-log scales. When that's done, I'll send you an email.) Derek.

Thanks, Derek, for making it so easy for me to demonstrate to my sons how we did math in the old days! Your site is very math-fun, with the slide rules that are so very life-like. I can almost feel the glide of the cursor! Great Work! D. B., Michigan

Thanks, D., I'm glad you liked it! Slide rules were a great invention, I hope everyone gets to try one at least once, to see how elegant yet powerful they were. I gave my 3 year old kid an old wrecked Pickett. He just swings it around now, but I'm hoping he'll get the concept of numbers and scales "imprinted" in his mind... maybe it'll help him with his math when he's older (???). Once again, thanks for the encouraging words! Derek Winnipeg, Manitoba

Or try the tumblr auxiliary page at slide-rules.tumblr.com.

If you'd like to see some old comments, take a look at: General Comments

[back to AntiQuark]