Non-Scientific Survey of Scientific Calculators

What's the problem with using the *original* calculator, it's called your head?

Y = sqrt(50000^2 + 250^2) - 50000

makes my head hurt and takes too long.

My TI-59? does T-pad calculations a lot quicker than I can. KCalc does natural logs a lot faster than I can. OpenOffice spreadsheets do =20*log10(C1/B1) of about 100 numbers faster than I can.

FreePascal does: while N 1 do begin if (N AND 1) > 0 then N := 3*N+1 else N := N DIV 2; end;

a lot faster than I can.

I've been using the same scientific calculator for ~22 years. A KMC8000 (K-mart Company?). Aluminum body... The weight and resonance of the case makes it feel like a tool, not a toy. About 1cm thick. Ok in shirt pocket for the nerd look. Button beep feedback. Ok tactile feedback buttons. I've only changed the battery 2x in 22 years. Has all the functions I need and nothing more.

Quite impressive for old LCD tech. The designers did a great job. :)

And damn!...Do I really know where every button is.. I can do calculations in the dark :)

D from BC British Columbia Canada.

I have a couple of HP32 S2's, and a working HP35 on my drafting table.

I also have a couple of neat but not-working HP9100 desktop calcs, the ones with core memory and CRT displays, the predecessor to the HP35. I'd love to get them working, but HP won't let me see the schematics.

I don't ever program calculators. If an algorithm needs to be repeated, I code it in PowerBasic.

John

An HP RPN scientific calc is great.

What resistor should I put in parallel with 10K to get 8.43K?

10 1/x 8.43 1/x - 1/x

53.694K

It gets even better when you're doing trig stuff, or dBs.

I hardly know how to subtract any more, and I doubt that I remember the long division algorithm.

John

Yep. Once you've become familiar with RPN it's tough to go back to algebraic.

To answer the OP's question -- I use an HP 32Sii most of the time, but have dozens of other HP calcs.

Bob

A little solar sharp went thru college, then a HP48gx. The sharp is 20yrs old, still works. The HP48 is still used on a daily basis. Field reps are amazed ;)

Just gotta take care of them.

Cheers

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I use an HP15C

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Backlit LCD? ;)

I use a TI-60X

I have a fancy plotting TI-83, but it just sits on the shelf... minus batteries.

...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | | | E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat | |

| 1962 | America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

I have an HP48g, but these days I use a TI Voyage200 (a TI-89 with a more or less full keyboard and more display pixels). It has adlib entry of complex numbers in different formats, symbolic and numeric solving, including complex math (a pretty good built in computer algebra system), and a raft of statistical functions. The full keyboard means you don't have to spend as much time searching overloaded keys for function names - all the functions can be typed in letter by letter if desired. Of course, you can program your own functions very easily, and evoke them by typing their names at the keyboard. When you type the function name followed by an open parenthesis, a small-type prompt shows up with the variable names of the expected arguments. It's very handy in school or on a bench. Even when you have a computer in front of you, it's useful. You don't have to minimize whatever software you're running and start up a CAS - the calculator is a separate mathematical computer, running on four AAA batteries.

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John

Then it would not have been LCD.

I have an HP41CX, which replaced one of the very first HP41C models (fall of 1979). My dad sat on a board of directors with John Young, who ran HP at that point, so I got (I think) just about the first HP41C in Canada. Before I got my first personal PC, I did a lot of HP41C programming, including belonging to a club called PPC that discovered a bunch of undocumented opcodes, and produced a ROM that made that 'synthetic programming' easier. Fun.

I also have a copy of Handy Compact (microwave engineering s/w, for those who don't know) in another ROM.

Mostly I use the calculator facility built into my electromagnetic simulator s/w.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

I mostly use basic Casio scientifics, no need for anything more.

Although I also have one of these babies, the ultimate scientific calculator for nerds:

(Yes, it's RPN and algebraic, with full scientific functionality, and it's programmable too. Oh, and it tells the time as well.)

Dave.

I've got a TI-83+. It's pretty nice for a calculator and has a Z80 CPU too.

I had an old Toshiba RPN calculator back in the day. Had a vacuum fluorescent display too.

Took some getting used to but the nice thing about modern scientific calculators is they'll obey paranthesized equations.

HP-11C Runs forever on bateries, I can hardly recall the last time I replaced them, maybe 8-9-10 years back.

Just bought an HP35S, at the urging of the nice folk in SED. ;-) There are some things I don't like about it, but overall I'm pleased for the few bucks it cost.

My first calculator was an HP45.

That cost a poor, married, college kid $400 in 1973. Likely the most important thing my student loans bought. ;-)

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Keith

I bought an HP32 S2 after I lost my HP15c. I didn't like the '32 much, so after a long search I ended up using an RPN calculator program (XCALC) on my PC and only use the '32 when mobile.

Regards, Allan