On 12/27/2010 11:07 PM, Steve B wrote:
My first electronic calculator in the early seventies was over $35 and
all it could do was add, multiply, subtract and devide - if you could
keep batteries in it.

Today a $2 calculator will run for a couple years on a battery, do
square roots, metric conversions, etc and has 2 or 3 memories.
A $30 calculator is a full programmable scientific calculator with a
solar cell and a battery you never need to replace.

IIRC, I paid about $2 for a plastic slide rule in high school, from 62 to
66. A Pickett, which I still have, with the leather case was about $12.
How much would a $12 slide rule cost today adjusted for all the things it
needs to be adjusted for?

Far more than graphing calculator that would do calculus, if my guess is
right.

Steve


In 73, I met a guy at the university who owned one of the newfangled
HP calculators. I think it was the HP-45 and it cost him upwards of
$400.00 at the time. It's amazing that you can buy something for ten
bucks today that will blow it away. :-)

TDD