... I doubt that there has ever been a better way to learn the relationship between numbers - and even mathematics in general - than the slide-rule from days-gone-by, and the ability to plot functions using modern computer technology. For the young people here who may not have ever used a slide rule, below is a link to a virtual slide rule:     virtual slide rule

I wish, and think it would be a great asset to Maplesoft to incorporate a "Virtual Slide-Rule" into their software. Not something as basic as the one shown at the link above, but rather one that could be zoomed in/out, display the results digitally, include new functionality such as that relating to integral and differential calculus as an example, and even plot the results. Myself, being 53 years of age and trying to pick up where I left off after dropping out of school in my youth somewhere between the 8th and 9th grade, can testify to the benefit of these two tools! I honestly believe, for example, that if Fourier (and likely many others) had a tool such as Maple, he would have come to his conclusions - and likely many more - more quickly. The benefit of a virtual slide rule versus the old-style (I'll talk about my ideas for improving that style as well, further down), is speed and resolution. As those of you who have used a slide rule may know, the resolution isn't as easily obtainable as it is with software. The ability to zoom in and out on a virtual slide rule would eliminate that problem. By zooming in and out, the idea is not to just make the thing larger, but increasing the resolution of the numeric display so the final result of the calculation becomes the same as that of software performing a similar calculation. I've been using Maple only for a short while and have learned a great deal. I fairly recently purchased a very fine slide rule at an antique shop, the model shown at the link above coincidentally (many are available on ebay even), and am already able to get answers to problems much faster than a hand-held calculator or computer software. So... Maplesoft developers, what do you think? Jacques, if you are reading this, it would be my assumption, based on ideas that you've mentioned in this newsgroup, that this kind of idea may be appealing to you. Although the capability of computer software is a wonderful thing, there are still a few "bumps" when it comes to entering the data either by numerous mouse clicks, or of course the keyboard. Concerning the idea of bringing back the old-style physical slide-rule, I think it would be great if it were to be redesigned in the same way as the caliper which has now also seen a new design within the last 15 years or so, by adding a digital display. I think both the software and hardware improvements to the slide rule would greatly benefit the student in the learning of mathematics. In my opinion....