General > General Technical Chat
What calculator do you use ?
saturation:
VPAM is Casios term for having to write out the equation before doing calculations. Its geared towards learning math, but it can be very powerful if the calculators have more processing power, akin to solving complex equations like MathCad.
The cheapo style we first encountered, and comes in say the Windows calculator, is the immediate execution type, where each time you press an operator, the result is given, so if you have to work on complex equation, the user has to translate the math into how the calculator should do it. Its not a problem for 'basic' math like arithmetic, but move into calculus or where more variable are involved, and it get more tedious if not impossible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculator_input_methods
--- Quote from: ee851 on April 19, 2012, 04:24:46 pm ---Before reading this thread, I'd never heard of VPAM "Visually Perfect Algebraic Method". Does anybody know what is the difference between this and AOS "Algebraic operating system"?
Or is it just the same thing called X by manufacturer A and Y by manufacturer B?
--- End quote ---
jasonh:
The best calculator is the no longer made HP 42s rpn calculator. I have it in a drawer and bought it 22 years ago for a lovely sum.
I love RPN, its so natural once you start using it.
Mine no longer works as one day I had a full sheet of mdf in the carport and various papers, straight edges etc on top as I was marking out. A friend of the wife arrived and drove up and parked on everything. I went out to find it under her bloody wheel.
A couple days later I went to ebay to find a replacement as they are no longer made. I couldn't find anything second hand under ~ $250 USD.!!
The manual is still a nostalgic read though :-\
comox:
hp 48gx
grenert:
Long ago, back before the Internet created HP collector insanity, when HP discontinued the HP42S, Walmart put them on sale for something like $15! I bought one, and now realize I should have bought all of them!
For me, I prefer the HP11c/15c, I think because the 11c was my first RPN calculator back in 1987. I've used it so long that it has shaped the way my brain works. It still has the original batteries :)
--- Quote from: jasonh on April 22, 2012, 09:09:25 am ---The best calculator is the no longer made HP 42s rpn calculator. I have it in a drawer and bought it 22 years ago for a lovely sum.
I love RPN, its so natural once you start using it.
Mine no longer works as one day I had a full sheet of mdf in the carport and various papers, straight edges etc on top as I was marking out. A friend of the wife arrived and drove up and parked on everything. I went out to find it under her bloody wheel.
A couple days later I went to ebay to find a replacement as they are no longer made. I couldn't find anything second hand under ~ $250 USD.!!
The manual is still a nostalgic read though :-\
--- End quote ---
paf:
Me, I have an HP15C, more than 20 years old and still working.
Two things no one has talked:
1) RPN is easy to lean if you use the right approach:
always write first the number and after what "the number is doing" to the others you have already written.
Algebraic:
(3+2)*(5-2)
Slowly :
3 Enter the 3 is not doing nothing
2 + the 2 is to be added to the 3
5 Enter the five is doing nothing
2 - the 2 is to be subtracted to the 5
* and the result will be multiplied
In RPN all in one line
3 Enter 2 + 5 Enter 2 - *
2) What can this strange notation can bring as benefit?
All the new operands/routines that you define work the same as the "native" operands of the calculator.
Using // for the parallel of resistors lets calculate ( all in ohms!):
(((3+4)//(5+2))+3)//10
Two series of two resistors in parallel, then a fifth ( 3 Ohms ) in series and a sixth (10 Ohms) in parallel.
First the parallel can be programed in RPN as:
[Begin_Routine] 1/x x<>y 1/x + 1/x [End_Routine]
You only need 5 keystrokes and the [Begin_Routine] [End_Routine] stuff (specific to each calculator).
Now having assigned the Routine to an suitable key ( we will call it // ) to do the above calculation you will only need to press:
3 Enter 4 + 5 Enter 2 + // 3 + 10 //
Now, if you have an HP15C and want to do the same with complex numbers, you don't have to do nothing more.
Yes. What you have done, already works with complex numbers!
See, that's why some guys are mad about RPN.
So grab an RPN calculator emulator for your favorite OS and try it.
Greetings
paf
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