41–50 of 140 posts
I am a fan of the HP Prime https://hpcalcs.com/product/hp-prime-graphing-calculator/ But I use it in algebraic instead of RPN mode. I’ve got a 49g and a 50-something too. People say it is pricey but I managed to get one discounted that was intended for the Latin American market. So is the thing that software is supposed to run on.
The 48G was a really good calculator, but only after loading additional software. The HP50g that came much later is better in every respect, except possibly for the smaller "ENTER" key (and people used to 48G will have to change some habits and possibly redefine some keys…). Incidentally, many young people (yes, I know how that sounds) do not know how useful a good engineering calculator can be and do not want to lea…
Also I will add, there are known symbolic math issues on the HP50G due to the CAS system it uses. I will see if I can find a link.
The 48G was a really good calculator, but only after loading additional software. The HP50g that came much later is better in every respect, except possibly for the smaller "ENTER" key (and people used to 48G will have to change some habits and possibly redefine some keys…). Incidentally, many young people (yes, I know how that sounds) do not know how useful a good engineering calculator can be and do not want to lea…
TBH TI-89 titanium is a better engineering calculator since the UI is way better. I have both a HP50G and a TI-89 titanium and I've done way more useful engineering work on the TI-89 titanium just because it's so much easier and accessible. Also of course, BASIC is a lot easier than reverse polish lisp for making some quick scripts. Also I will add, there are known symbolic math issues on the HP50G due to the CAS sys…
Try a quick EE example for parallel resistor calculation that takes 2 and puts 1 value back on stack
>
Store that in RPAR in whatever directory you want or HOME. Then you whack in 2 resistors and hit the RPAR F-key. There is nothing faster or more efficient than that.
I still use a 15C all the time though. Even easier! 99% of what I do is on paper though and ends up getting chucked in the numeric solver.
The 48G was a really good calculator, but only after loading additional software. The HP50g that came much later is better in every respect, except possibly for the smaller "ENTER" key (and people used to 48G will have to change some habits and possibly redefine some keys…). Incidentally, many young people (yes, I know how that sounds) do not know how useful a good engineering calculator can be and do not want to lea…
The schools ruined calculators.
I still find a calculator handy, even when I've already got Python going on my PC. It's easier to use the calculator with one hand, especially in the workshop. You can get a Casio solar at Target for 10 bucks.
My wife really prefers RPN, so I gave her my last HP when hers died.
The 48G was a really good calculator, but only after loading additional software. The HP50g that came much later is better in every respect, except possibly for the smaller "ENTER" key (and people used to 48G will have to change some habits and possibly redefine some keys…). Incidentally, many young people (yes, I know how that sounds) do not know how useful a good engineering calculator can be and do not want to lea…
It's ok, I sound like that too. The problem is that in order to be acceptable for school use, calculators have to be so lobotomized that they are useless for real engineering work. The keyboard cannot be qwerty, it has to have lockdown modes which shut off functionality, etc etc.
Frankly, as a math teacher, I'd be just as happy if my students could program their calculators to help them on assignments and tests.
// I wish there was a good HP50G emulator for iOS//
A calculator has to have buttons man :-)
The 48G was a really good calculator, but only after loading additional software. The HP50g that came much later is better in every respect, except possibly for the smaller "ENTER" key (and people used to 48G will have to change some habits and possibly redefine some keys…). Incidentally, many young people (yes, I know how that sounds) do not know how useful a good engineering calculator can be and do not want to lea…
which additional software?
Also, these two statements:
> it takes forever to use them to calculate useful things, and graphing is much better done on a computer
> the rewards are significant if you do any amount of calculation in your hobby or work. No, this is not replaced by typing "python" (or "bc", or anything else, really) at your command prompt
seem like they're at odds. If a computer has a considerable processing speed advantage and better display plotting capabilities, what's the value prop of the HP/RPL environment over python/bc/anythingElseReally?
(I have a 48G, clearly I may not have gotten high enough on the learning curve, your answer could be relevant to my decision to keep it or send it on into the world)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Seems like a really nice effort. Does it? Another powerful calculating engine trapped behind a skeuomorph interface? Here[1] is a really nice effort that, sadly, hasn't been updated in 14 years and only runs on Windows. It's a wonderful 606kB math REPL that can probably do everything DB48X can do, except it foregoes all the 1970's portable calculator nonsense, making it about a thousand times more useful. I have a…
Is there a significant difference between that package and SageMath / XCas / Octave and friends? While a bit arcane, I've always been a great fan of xcas