Ode to Sliderule Angst

Bud Hunt put up an image of a sliderule this morning, asking us to write a poem. (It’s part of his poem-a-day visual inspiration project). I know my kids have trouble with rulers (!!!), never mind a sliderule. So, this humorous take is told from a student’s perspective because I had this visual of a kid looking for places to plug in their headphones as they did some math problems.

Batteries won’t work in this analog computer
you placed in my hands today
and I can’t find the port to plug in my headphones
so what music am I supposed to play
while I work out that problem you put on the board
on trigonometry, logarithms and roots?
I’m completely befuddled by this ruler-kind-of-thing –
The device refuses to boot.

The podcast of the poem is here.

 

Peace (in the rule),
Kevin

One Comment
  1. Plugging in has become something akin to the former wandering I watched my students doing. Now they have something to wander for, I suppose. Great rhyming here, and the angst of that poor student is evident, Kevin. Thanks for the picture!

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