Talk:Slide calculator

Does anyone know how one of these works? If so, would that be something worthwhile to add to the article? JYolkowski // talk 02:16, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Yep, I have one. It's hard to describe, so I hope I'm clear; it may help to look at the photo of the Addiator while you read this. To add a given number, you go to the column representing each digit's place value, and put the stylus in the hole corresponding to that digit. Then you pull downward, and the hole (along with the metal strip containing it) slides downward until you hit a barrier at zero, by which time you have slid the strip by the appropriate amount. If you cannot get all the way down, it's because the digit in the current place value has exceeded 9; in that case you do a "carry maneuver", which involves pushing the stylus in the hole all the way upward until it reaches a half-circular groove that literally carries the stylus into the next-higher place value, where you can move the latter downward one digit. So, suppose you want to add 8 when the machine is already showing a value of 5. You pull downward, but you find that you can't get to the bottom, so you have to do a carry. You push all the way up to the top (which would involve going only two digits upward because you started at 8 out of 10), then follow the half-circle groove to the 10s position and push it down one slot. The effect is to subtract 2 and add 10, which is the same as adding 8. Multi-digit numbers are added simply by repeating this procedure for each digit. --Doradus 05:35, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

A good description on how to use it can be found here: http://home.clara.net/sliderules/a-to-z/addiator.htm 217.31.178.94 (talk) 06:36, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

See also the German page, where one of the links offers a Flash simulation. alex (talk) 11:03, 31 July 2016 (UTC)