Latin translation...

Factual Questions
1

Hi, folks-- I need to translate some English text into Latin for a book I’m working on. How would you say:

Golden Slide Rule (i.e., the mathematical calculating tool, but made of gold)

… in Latin?

2

Regula logarithmica aurea ?

3

Thanks, Giles.

4

Did they have logarithms in Rome? I doubt it. So you’d want something more like:

Regula arithmetica aurea

or you might want a gerund in there:

Regula calculanda aurea

(yes, calculare is real Latin verb)

5

Well, it’s not a historical book, so it needn’t be accurate to ancient Rome’s usage.

Any Vatican dopers on the board? :wink: Surely some Jesuits must have used a Latin term for slide rule at some point during the 20th century…

6

The slide rule was an invention of the 17th century, and of an Englishman. I suppose the Oughtred Society can probably tell us what he originally called the slide rule, should you care to ask.

7

Awesome link. I e-mailed them to see if they have any insight.

8

No, they didn’t have logarithms, and they didn’t have slide rules either, so you just have to either invent something, or find something that has been invented in Modern Latin. But, of your two suggestions, I think “Regula calculanda aurea” is better, partly because the Italian for “slide rule” is “regolo calcolatore”, and Italian is the closest modern language to Latin.