91–100 of 116 posts
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The DB48X project created a HP48G/HP50G style firmware for SwissMicros calculators. https://github.com/c3d/db48x
The db48x/db50x project seems to be more promising than C47/R47; although, I wish Swissmicros could produce a db50x version with the right layout (no stickies)
I think I will stick with a TI-89. No RPN, but that’s not necessarily a problem. More importantly, it has a CAS (Computer Algebra System). I wonder why CAS aren’t more common on such calculators. The technology exists since decades and it’s great. I know it’s not allowed in some school exams, but calculators already have exam modes.
Yeah I won't give a serious thought to anything that doesn't have full symbolic support. I gave my nephew-in-law my old TI-89 Titanium last year, he was entering 8th grade and I got it midway through 9th grade and it served me well all the way through my CE undergrad. Arithmetic, trig, statistics, basic calculus, differential equations, laplace transforms, vector calculus, it handled so much, and it was easy to use T…
I have an embarrassing question... math has always interested me but by luck and circumstance I have had a pretty successful career without needing anything beyond college Algebra. Can anyone recommend a curriculum that a busy adult may be able to follow in their spare time? I just want to fill in blanks and explore what is possible.
For me, I set out to write a flight simulator from scratch following a book [1]. I learned a lot of linear algebra that way. Such that when I later took Calculus III in college (it was linear algebra) I aced the class. (Also, reinforced what I remembered from Trig, I finally fully grokked it. Except for trig identities, ha ha.) The book was targeting DOS and C++. I wrote it in C for the Macintosh. (That required that…
I still miss my 15C.
I still have mine from 1987. You can still buy the HP-15C Collector's Edition new, but it isn't as good as the originals with their perfect keyboards and the silicon on sapphire technology that gave them their incredible battery life. The SwissMicros DM-15L is also a worthwhile substitute.
I have an embarrassing question... math has always interested me but by luck and circumstance I have had a pretty successful career without needing anything beyond college Algebra. Can anyone recommend a curriculum that a busy adult may be able to follow in their spare time? I just want to fill in blanks and explore what is possible.
Math is a broad subject. This is something LLMs are actually reasonably good at: ask them for textbook recommendations, and get into a dialogue about which sub-areas of math you're interested in and what level you're currently at, whether you want pure math (more theorem-proof focused) or applied math (more practice solving concrete problems, e.g. finding lots of derivatives and integrals). Toss in names of books that have been recommended and ask where they fit in to the LLM's other recommendations.
LLMs don't understand the math, but they're trained on a lot of discussions and recommendations for math books, and have a reasonably good sense of what level different books are at.
Download multiple recommendations in each area and try them all out. Seeing how different authors start out approaching largely the same material will help you conceptualize it better than just relying on a single approach. There's no universal "right" book to learn from. I wouldn't buy non-free textbooks without trying them out first.
Youtube has a lot of math lecture series, which can help if you're stuck on a particular point, but they're not the same as doing problem sets yourself.
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A physical calculator is a tool, so is your python interpreter, but they are different tools for different purposes. Mathematica does everything your python interpreter does and more — but that doesn't mean python becomes useless because of that. It's good for certain things, while Mathematica is good for other things. Similarly with calculators (especially HP calculators), which have become a bit of a lost art (an e…
GNU Maxima it's the best of both grounds.
Am I the only one who dislikes the CR2032 that all the RPN calculators need?
How come? I admit I've never given it any thought. What do you dislike about them?
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How come? I admit I've never given it any thought. What do you dislike about them?
Calculators are large enough that it should be possible to fit AAA or AA sized batteries, even possibly a 18650. They're lower power enough that a CR3202 lasts a long enough time but it always ends up dying at the most inconvenient time and they're really the only device I have that needs CR3202.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How come? I admit I've never given it any thought. What do you dislike about them?
Calculators are large enough that it should be possible to fit AAA or AA sized batteries, even possibly a 18650. They're lower power enough that a CR3202 lasts a long enough time but it always ends up dying at the most inconvenient time and they're really the only device I have that needs CR3202.
I have an embarrassing question... math has always interested me but by luck and circumstance I have had a pretty successful career without needing anything beyond college Algebra. Can anyone recommend a curriculum that a busy adult may be able to follow in their spare time? I just want to fill in blanks and explore what is possible.
College algebra is just rehashed high school algebra. Math is a broad subject. This is something LLMs are actually reasonably good at: ask them for textbook recommendations, and get into a dialogue about which sub-areas of math you're interested in and what level you're currently at, whether you want pure math (more theorem-proof focused) or applied math (more practice solving concrete problems, e.g. finding lots of…