The electronic slide rule both assists in learning how to use a slide rule, assists in actually using one for everyday calculations, and makes you look very cool. Basically each gradation is seperately illuminated by a micro-led, and also a tactile feedback system means you can feel when you have positioned the cursor correctly. A discreet screen shows the numerical answer (after the slides and cursor have been manipulated to the appropriate position), also indicating the appropriate decimal point. The illuminated gradations flash subtly, guiding your eye to read the answer on the scales.

Voice recognition is used to enter the calculations, so that you simply speak to youself and manipulate the slides before reading off the answer.
-- pocmloc, Mar 08 2015

Digital calipers disassembly https://www.sparkfu...all/i7J7oHkCw4g/188
Rob from SparkFun shows what's inside digital calipers [notexactly, Mar 09 2015]

Whilst I agree the use of a slide rule is the epitome of coolness there's something else about this idea I can't quite put my finger on...
-- Voice, Mar 08 2015


The position-sensing mechanism from a digital vernier gauge would be perfect for inputting data via the slide. This could quite easily be Baked.

Instead of fixed printed scales, what about an OLED display ?

[+]
-- 8th of 7, Mar 08 2015


A variation on this Idea would take the power provided (solar cells could easily fit on the surface) and motorize both the cursor and the slide. When you enter the 1st number, the cursor moves to the appropriate place along the length of the rule; when you enter the 2nd number, the slide moves to the appropriate place. Then the digital readout displays ALL the results (remember large fancy slide rules had quite a few different sets of markings on them).
-- Vernon, Mar 08 2015


Naturally that would be an optional extra mode, [Vernon].

Problem with trying to display the gradations on a pixellated screen, is that the pixels will limit the accuracy of non-linear scales. And if you have non-linear pixel spacing then you're almost where I was in the idea. Also, "machine engraved" scales look so much cooler than flat on-screen ones.

How does the digital vernier caliper work? I have seen them but my grandfather's actual vernier caliper does me just fine so I never "upgraded".
-- pocmloc, Mar 08 2015


Give it an e-ink screen, with appropriate processing power. If the scales are represented by SVG or other vector graphic images, you should be able to zoom in arbitrarily far.
-- lurch, Mar 08 2015


[pocmloc], see my link. Spoiler: it's a capacitive encoder, made in what looks like the cheapest way possible (PCB traces). I think that would probably work fine for the slide rule.
-- notexactly, Mar 09 2015


//vector graphic images// I am still going to tediously object, that you can scale as much as you like, but the actual display will be miserably inexact if you try to show logarithmic gradations on a linearly divided screen. Unless you have invisibly fine resolution, I suppose, and make each marking a few pixels wide, and dither the edges, OK you are right basically.
-- pocmloc, Mar 10 2015


//miserably inexact// I don't think so.

Back when I first got to play with AutoCAD (this was back in R5 days, on an 8086 with no math co-processor) it came with a demo file as a map of the solar system.

An accurately scaled map, all the way out to the orbit of Pluto (which was then a planet, of course).

And if you zoomed down to the inner solar system, you could find Earth. And the Moon. And on the moon, the Apollo 11 Lunar Module. (All these in green wire-frame on black, of course.) And on the LM's landing leg, the plaque with the inscription "We came in peace for all mankind", and the signatures of Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins.

Now, if you can place those things in that relative position with that level of precision, then you can precisely place two images relative to each other, particularly when they are mathematical abstractions which are rendered at the appropriate scale on demand.
-- lurch, Mar 11 2015


I don't see how that's relevant. The issue is that the physical pixels that make up the screen are not suitable for displaying things on a log scale, because they're on a linear grid. However:

// invisibly fine resolution //

…as popularized by Apple under the name Retina Display, and found in most smartphones these days.
-- notexactly, Mar 11 2015


I have realized that piezo motors would be very suitable for the motorized version of this.
-- notexactly, Jul 03 2019



random, halfbakery