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Slide rule   /slaɪd rul/   Listen
noun
Slide  n.  
1.
The act of sliding; as, a slide on the ice.
2.
Smooth, even passage or progress. "A better slide into their business."
3.
That on which anything moves by sliding. Specifically:
(a)
An inclined plane on which heavy bodies slide by the force of gravity, esp. one constructed on a mountain side for conveying logs by sliding them down.
(b)
A surface of ice or snow on which children slide for amusement.
4.
That which operates by sliding. Specifically:
(a)
A cover which opens or closes an aperture by sliding over it.
(b)
(Mach.) A moving piece which is guided by a part or parts along which it slides.
(c)
A clasp or brooch for a belt, or the like.
5.
A plate or slip of glass on which is a picture or delineation to be exhibited by means of a magic lantern, stereopticon, or the like; a plate on which is an object to be examined with a microscope.
6.
The descent of a mass of earth, rock, or snow down a hill or mountain side; as, a land slide, or a snow slide; also, the track of bare rock left by a land slide.
7.
(Geol.) A small dislocation in beds of rock along a line of fissure.
8.
(Mus.)
(a)
A grace consisting of two or more small notes moving by conjoint degrees, and leading to a principal note either above or below.
(b)
An apparatus in the trumpet and trombone by which the sounding tube is lengthened and shortened so as to produce the tones between the fundamental and its harmonics.
9.
(Phonetics) A sound which, by a gradual change in the position of the vocal organs, passes imperceptibly into another sound.
10.
(Steam Engine)
(a)
Same as Guide bar, under Guide.
(b)
A slide valve.
Slide box (Steam Engine), a steam chest. See under Steam.
Slide lathe, an engine lathe. See under Lathe.
Slide rail, a transfer table. See under Transfer.
Slide rest (Turning lathes), a contrivance for holding, moving, and guiding, the cutting tool, made to slide on ways or guides by screws or otherwise, and having compound motion.
Slide rule, a mathematical instrument consisting of two parts, one of which slides upon the other, for the mechanical performance of addition and subtraction, and, by means of logarithmic scales, of multiplication and division.
Slide valve.
(a)
Any valve which opens and closes a passageway by sliding over a port.
(b)
A particular kind of sliding valve, often used in steam engines for admitting steam to the piston and releasing it, alternately, having a cuplike cavity in its face, through which the exhaust steam passes. It is situated in the steam chest, and moved by the valve gear. It is sometimes called a D valve, a name which is also applied to a semicylindrical pipe used as a sliding valve.



Slide rule  n.  A thin, flat calculating device consisting of a fixed outer piece and a movable middle piece. Both pieces are graduated in such a way (as, by a logarithmic scale) that multiplication, division, and other mathematical functions of an input variable may be rapidly determined by movement of the middle pieces to a location on one scale corresponding to the input value, and reading off the result on another scale. A movable window with a hairline assists in alignment of the scales. This device has been largely superseded by the electronic calculator, which has a greater precision than the slide rule. Also called colloquially slipstick.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Slide rule" Quotes from Famous Books



... and took out my notebook and pencil, and laid my pocket slide rule in front of me. I always put the slide rule out where the inventor can see it to remind him that he is talking to another technical man, not just a lawyer. This helps make him stick to the facts. I didn't need the rule with Callahan, but ...
— The Professional Approach • Charles Leonard Harness

... found the young inventor hard at work in his private laboratory. He was tapping his head with his slide rule and frowning at a blackboard scrawled with equations when Bud dropped in ...
— Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung • Victor Appleton

... the application of the ballistic table. A slide rule should be used for the arithmetical operations, as it works to ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 - "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" • Various

... pulled out a special slide rule designed for use in space. He had Koa stand by with stylus and computation board and take down figures as ...
— Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet • Blake Savage

... passengers was an English officer, Captain Wheeler, with whom we had played many games of deck cricket on the voyage. First his regulation seventy cubic feet of baggage was lowered—an extraordinary amount, for no one without the aid of a slide rule and logarithms could possibly calculate it—and then he himself made the perilous descent—without a ducking. He would next have 240 miles of train journey to Coomassie and then a walk—or rather a journey in a hammock—for another ...
— A Journal of a Tour in the Congo Free State • Marcus Dorman



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