(61g) A Homemade Sliderule as a Manipulative Study Aid for Chemical Reactor Design

In this paper, the construction and use of a simple slide rule is demonstrated, as well as its application as a manipulative device intended for college level chemistry or chemical engineering students. The slide rules are simple enough that they can easily be built by students or teachers, and designed to represent any form of chemical kinetics/reactor combination. In the extended abstract, several simple configurations, including first order irreversible reaction in a CSTR and PFR reactor, are shown. The problem is solved by separating the design equation, written in terms of space-time, into a characteristic reaction time and a coversion term. These terms are formatted onto separate movable log scales that can be used to solve for space time in terms of conversion, or conversion in temrs of space time.