History Channel's "60's Tech" (thought it might have been "70's Tech) had a guy racing his slide rule (looked like a K+E type Duplex) against a woman with a calculator.

The problem was the simple "what is the square root of 23?"

It should have been a fair fight, as this is easy-peasy on either instrument. Calculator lady got it right away, as expected. He fumbled around for a good 15 seconds, saying things like "wait a sec..." and apparently starting over once or twice, before unconfidently saying "about 4.8...?" Proving of course how difficult and inaccurate slide rule use is.

It was quite laughable. It was like watching the people in the infomercials fumble around with simple tools to show in comparison how easy it is to use whatever they are selling. I could have gotten off the couch, walked accross the room, pulled out a slide rule, turned on a light, and STILL found the answer faster than the yahoo on TV!

Andre