Spreading some luck...(tag- Zack Dill) on Library

Professor McFarlan

June 15, 2007 6:05 AM

Spreading some luck...(tag- Zack Dill) by Professor McFarlan

Professor McFarlan strolled into the library, a small paper sack in her hand. She’d hesitated about delivering this now, as it might tempt a certain young man away from his CATS studies. However she never was one to break a promise, and didn’t believe Zack Dill would either. He had vowed that his CATS studies wouldn’t lag if she helped him with Muggle mathematics. Even if she hadn’t promised to tutor him until after CATS, he would still take time in to try to learn on his own.

A thought had dawned on her earlier in the day, when, half asleep, she’d tried to use her battery operated tooth brush that had somehow got packed in with the rest of her toiletries…Electricity didn’t like Sonora. While going over some of the CATS review quizzes and giving a perfect grade to Mr. Dill’s effort, the second part of the “equation” fell into place. Calculators do not work at Sonora either. Doing higher math problems were tedious when one had to go through the entire problem from step one. Zack could learn at a much faster rate if he had a bit of help and she just happened to remember she had that help sitting on a shelf in her office.

As a joke, when she began her muggle science studies, her brother, Michael, had presented her with a slide rule. He didn’t know that she knew slide rules lost their charm in algebra and trig back in the mid 70’s. The future professor had kept it, rather than breaking it over her dear brother’s head as she’d threatened to do, as a talisman. Her family may not have understood her dreams, but at least they supported her and she wouldn’t let them down. Now it was time to pass it along to someone who could truly use it.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Dill,” Professor McFarlan said pulling the slide rule out of the bag. “Not to interrupt your studies, but I was wondering if you might be able to find some use for this muggle artifact?”

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0 Professor McFarlan Spreading some luck...(tag- Zack Dill) 1467 Professor McFarlan 1 5

Zack Dill

June 26, 2007 9:22 AM

It's a . . . slide rule? by Zack Dill

Zack looked up from the essay he was writing for transfigurations when he heard somebody approach his Prefect Station in the Non-Magical Sciences section of the library. Not that Sonora had a lot of books on the subject, but there were enough to keep Zack occupied with practice problems. The odd questions even had solutions in the back so he could check his work when he finished.

Right now though, the books scattered around him were all opened to inanimate to animate chapters of transfiguration texts. He was currently cross referencing the theory to support a point he was trying to make about today's lesson. He hoped whoever was coming just wanted to know where the nearest bathroom was because he was just starting to bring everything together and he wanted to keep the momentum going.

When he looked up, though, all thoughts of transfiguration fled and an excited bright smile filled his expression as he recognized Professor McFarlan. "Professor," he greeted in a happy whisper (this was, after all, a library).

She returned the greeting and pulled an object out of her bag. Zack stared at it in confusion for a moment as she presented it to him. It took a moment - they weren't in common usage anymore so it was his social studies classes rather than his math classes that allowed him to identify the item. He accepted it gingerly as if it were an actual ancient artifact. "A slide rule," he stated, the whisper still conveying his confusion as to why she was showing it to him.

He turned it over, examining it from each side as his phenomenal brain finally made the necessary deductions. Most electrical things didn't work at Sonora. His scientific calculator had just laughed at him when he'd first tried to use it here (not literally, thank the Maker), but older tools for calculation would not be so affected. He looked up at her, eyes shining with gratitude, but then reality settled in and the expression faded into one of dismay. "I don't know how to use it," he admitted miserably, as if this were a terrible failing.

1 Zack Dill It's a . . . slide rule? 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Professor McFarlan

June 28, 2007 8:14 AM

It's Fun to Slide by Professor McFarlan

Professor McFarlan smiled at Zack. For a young man who prided himself on his intellectual prowess, that simple admission must have been difficult. She was relieved that he knew what it was at least and all she was left was show him how the mechanical analogue calculator worked.

“This is the cursor.” Professor McFarlan pointed to the movable section of the rule. “You line up the curser to with the numbers you want to work with and refer to the line representing the appropriate function.”

“For instance, the C line denotes multiplication.” She continued to demonstrate as she spoke. “Line the cursor with the number two at the top and refer to the C line. All the numbers below it are double of the numbers above it. These little windows also denote function.”

Kathleen moved the cursor to the number nine and pointed to a tiny cut out circle. “By looking in these, one can find quick answers to problems that they aren’t able to figure out in their heads or want to take the time to work out on paper. This window shows that the square root of nine is…”
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0 Professor McFarlan It's Fun to Slide 1467 Professor McFarlan 0 5