The United States Military Academy at West Point was started in 1802 as an engineering school for military officers.

Slide rules were once used to make computations. I always called them slide rulers, but the name is slide rule, not slide ruler.

In 1974, we were the last class at West Point required to learn how to use a slide rule, in the first year engineering fundamentals course.

Before the start of the spring semester in January, 1975, we were told that we could and would now use Texas Instrument calculators, with their red LED (Light Emitting Diode) displays.

I was taking sophomore (yearling) physics in that first year spring semester, so it was convenient to be able to use the calculators in physics class.

I still have that slide rule and case. Here is an image of that slide rule (and case). Whenever using a slide rule, it was very evident that any computation involving real numbers was an approximation. Computers approximate results too, but this may not be as obvious.

Having been writing computer programs the previous year (in my senior year of high school) to solve physics problems, trigonometry problems, matrix and linear algebra problems, etc., it did seem a little strange to be learning to use a slide rule that first year at West Point.