Lost Skills

I was out recently with a guy that loved his GPS and watched it constantly, but couldn't read a topo map, and it got me thinking about how reliant we are on technology.

If your computer, PDA, Blackberry, iPhone, GPS, graphing calculator, internet, etc. went down, could you identify these items, much less USE them?
Lost Skills

What else would you "need" that doesn't use an external power source, or integrated circuit?

(Sorry, haven't figured out how to get the image in here)

One of these is all I would need.

Jeanette Isabelle

Tirec, that collection looks like what I find when I open the navigation desk of my boat.

The skills are not lost; they are being taught and learned every day. If you want to learn them, it is easier than ever to find a teacher - on the internet or "in real life."

New tools for navigation are great. And the old, old skills of reading nature: the wind, tide, stars, sun, clouds, shadows, land shapes, temperature changes, animal and plant movement, echo and sound changes, lining up reference points, etcetera, without instruments are still part of practical navigation.

People lose situational awareness using the old tools as well as the new. The experience of realizing you have "lost it" and overcoming that feeling to regain a solid sense of where you are remains a powerful teacher. Everybody goes through it, and just when they figure they are past it, they get another dose!

Only one I could not use is the slide rule - I never learned. 2 Years before I made high school, they were still teaching slide rules, and I can use a log table, but

Can people even do long division these days?

I used all those in school. They are very basic and easy skills to relearn -- except penmanship, my handwriting really sucks.

Found skills.
http://www.starpath.com/catalog/books/1830.htm

Depends on their age. Anyone under the age of 35 would struggle or look at you blankly and ask what's long division. They would even look at you more blankly if you asked them about fractional adddition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/maths/number/fractions2hirev1.shtml

I really cannot believe the standard of the level of arithmetic (which apparently is now a politically incorrect word), which is being taught at school today, the simple fractions in the above link are for 15 and 16 year olds. Apparently you can get a nationally recognised qualification pass at the age of 16 if the pupil can tell what the time is by knowing where the big hand and the little hand is on the clock.

Good heavens. Don't think that would have gotten me out of kindergarten.

I don't know - they taught my daughter to do all of those, and are teaching my son, (she's 12, so she's past that, he's 8, so he's learning that)

As I am past 35 I can identify and use the tools shown, minus the slide rule. Never learned.

I can land nav with the best of them. When I went into the Army I could read a map, make a map, knew my pace count and could use a compass. Now they start map classes with the memnoic "Never Eat Soggy Weenies" - north east south west - to get the rudiments of a map into the heads of the trainees. Scarey huh?

I knew all that camping and hiking with the Scouts would help me sometime.

I object. I am twenty-three-years-old and I can do long division.


I was able to get seven of the nine questions right, which would have given me a grade of 78, by doing the math in my head. I did not use a pencil and paper. I wanted to illustrate that it can be done in one's head. However, I had to use a pencil and paper to convert a fraction into decimal, 7/9 is .777 which, when rounded off, gives me the passing grade of 78.

Had I used a pencil and parer in the quiz, I may have gotten eight of the nine questions right. I missed the second question because I did not pay attention. I added instead of subtracted.

Jeanette Isabelle

It's been a while since I've used some of the skills, so some would be a bit rusty.

I was in school in the 70's, so my basic math in the early 70's didn't require the slide rule, and by the time I was getting to the more complex math in the late-70's, affordable calculators were available, so I missed the slide rule training, though my dad would break out his Versalog from time to time.

This weekend, I'm going to take a brush up with my slide rule, and expose my son to the slide rule. He's said that he can use all of the items listed except the slide rule.

Dad showed me once how to use a slide rule and I did practice with his a couple of times. I don't know if I could do it today.


The one I learned in fifth grade is, "Never Eat Sour Watermelons."

Jeanette Isabelle

The little parallel roller thing in the center of the picture is great for penciling in UTM grids onto your USGS quads :-)

And the dividers are for more precisely plotting the points...

Ya, I know how to use all that stuff. And I have used all but the slipstick recently.

Shouldn't there be an E6B "computer" in that picture?

I've bought a sliderule just to get the hang of it. Should practice more with it though. fractional adddition, subtraction, multiplication, division and long division is not realy a problem.

Then again, my age 37 has something to do with that. That and the fact that my profession is in the ICT, so .... I just don't trust electronics.

Is that slide rule that's in the picture, or is it a substitute for a set of parallel rules? Seems to look like something I've seen that would be the latter.

I am a user of triangles when it comes to chart plotting, although I've used parallel rules any number of times. I think anyone who relies on navigation should be able to use both.

I will admit to being shaky with the log tables. I was taught how to use them, then quite promptly allowed to forget. Other set of tables I have no problems with using.

We've got lots of skills that are lost among the general population, in a lot of areas. I know few women today who can knit. While Mom has knitted, she has not in more than 20 years, but she was no match for anyone in her mother's generation. There are examples of the traditional skills practiced by both men and women disappearing, and, FWIW, I have no qualms about someone crossing gender lines in this regard.

The ruler looks like it has a roller built in so that it can hold a bearing from the compass rose to wherever you need to draw a course (vice versa); so that would be a substitute for parallels.

I've got all that here, except that the parallels have been replaced by an Air Navigation Plotter which is a protractor designed for navigation.

I recognize the rolling ruler in the upper right corner, I had one years ago. I see someone else mentioned it as well. It wasn't a fancy navigation plotting ruler, it was called the rolling ruler, one of those as seen on TV things. it could draw parallel lines and circles and such.

I've got to admit that my "old school" math skills are in a pitiful state... most likely because it's been a long time since I've had the need for them.
And, thinking back, I was never very "focused" in math classes at school... and, I've never used a Slide Rule in my life.

Get past anything really basic, and I am totally "Calculator Dependant" ... I should probably spend some time re-learning some math skills.

I'm pretty good at math in my head, I thank being a cashier for that.

While I can't use a slide rule (but I can do long division), I did use it once...

Had a chemistry final in college. Professor said no calculators. I promptly borrowed my dad's slide rule, sat in the front rule, and fiddled around like mad trying to [censored] off the teacher ( I wasn't fond of her "office hours" as her answers tended to be "read the book." B!%ch. I'm still pissed, 15 years later)

Yep. And calc. Taking roots I can't remember how to do by hand, but that and working a slip stick is probably about all I can't do. Give me ten minutes to remember how and I can probably even work out the trig values long hand to. :P

I had calc and trig and stats profs in college who yelled at you if you used a calculator, or pen.

Heck, I've even got a CRC Math Tables book, and I've used most chapters in it.

The yellow slide rule is a Pickett Simplex Trig N902-ES (ver.1) with K, A, B, T, S, CI, C, D & L scales. Fortunately, it has instructions printed on the back so that I don't have to find a manual if I need to use it. I picked it up at Goodwill for a buck.

The clear ruler thingy is one of those "as seen on TV" jobbers my mom picked up many years ago. It's got several geometry & trigonometry formulas on it.

I forgot the E6-B or the CPU-26A/P and the plotter along with the sectional.

Now, if only I had a sextant.....

Now there's a lost skill.

I have a slide rule and a 1968 CRC Math (older than me) right here. I can do long division all day. Trying to get my kids into it.

Just don't ask me to work out anything on a Smith chart.

That's OK as most folks have trouble enough with real numbers let alone the imaginary numbers on the z plane.

Smith Chart - shudder