I started engineering school in 1970 and slide rules ruled. A few years later some classmates started showing up with fancy new 4 function calculators costing several hundred dollars, the equivalent of almost $1,500 in today's smaller greenbacks! By the time I was a senior the early scientific calculators from HP were arriving at a price point around $500 or a bit over $3,000 in today's dollars. I didn't have that kind dough to invest in calculators with pot at $20 an ounce back then...
As a 1st year college student I paid $400 CDN for an HP-45 in 1974, which was equivalent to 5 months of my room and board costs.
IIRC, the slide rule was about $10, min. wages were $3.50/hr, and beer was $0.50 at the school pub.
The big HP-45 feature was the polar <----> rectangular conversion which was much faster than the slide rule and used a lot in EE.
So the calculator investment did make life a little easier.
IIRC, the slide rule was about $10, min. wages were $3.50/hr, and beer was $0.50 at the school pub.
The big HP-45 feature was the polar <----> rectangular conversion which was much faster than the slide rule and used a lot in EE.
So the calculator investment did make life a little easier.