General > General Technical Chat
What's the current go-to calculator for electrical engineers?
tooki:
--- Quote from: SteveyG on December 03, 2021, 10:43:49 pm ---
--- Quote from: tooki on December 01, 2021, 12:29:09 pm ---
--- Quote from: SteveyG on December 01, 2021, 08:56:31 am ---I use the FX-991MS. You can use engineering notation directly which can be handy.
--- End quote ---
You mean metric SI prefixes, not engineering notation.
Engineering notation means things like 270ᴇ3 (meaning 270×103) for 270000, whereas with metric SI prefixes that’s 270k.
Practically any scientific calculator can do scientific notation (exponent notation like 2.7ᴇ5) and engineering notation (same as scientific, but with the exponent always in multiples of 3, like 270ᴇ3). It’s metric SI prefixes that are rare as hen’s teeth.
Edited per my reply to rsjsouza.
--- End quote ---
I did mean engineering notation, in that it will automatically keep all output in that format. It does SI prefixes in and out too with only the shift keystroke. I've not found a calculator that will remain in either mode without needing to press a key every time to convert.
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LOL what? I have multiple scientific calculators in arm’s reach and they all stay in engineering notation. Very basic ones (like my mid-90s solar-only TI-36X) will revert if you do a full “all clear”, more advanced ones do not. My HP Prime lives permanently in engineering notation.
It’s certainly not a conversion applied to a number after the fact!!
David Hess:
--- Quote from: tooki on December 04, 2021, 06:24:57 pm ---
--- Quote from: SteveyG on December 03, 2021, 10:43:49 pm ---I did mean engineering notation, in that it will automatically keep all output in that format. It does SI prefixes in and out too with only the shift keystroke. I've not found a calculator that will remain in either mode without needing to press a key every time to convert.
--- End quote ---
LOL what? I have multiple scientific calculators in arm’s reach and they all stay in engineering notation. Very basic ones (like my mid-90s solar-only TI-36X) will revert if you do a full “all clear”, more advanced ones do not. My HP Prime lives permanently in engineering notation.
It’s certainly not a conversion applied to a number after the fact!!
--- End quote ---
I took that to mean a calculator which supports engineering and SI prefixes, and continues to use whichever one is selected without additional keystrokes. I think the HP48/HP50 only supports SI prefixes for conversions but I remember a friend with a Casio that did conversions and might have done SI prefixes.
tooki:
Yes, that’s what I assumed he meant, but since he insists it’s not…
jonpaul:
My favorite is still the Tektronix Circuit Computer circular slide rule circa 1961, were given by Tek reps, very rare. I use it often.
Super useful and practical for all RLC circuit computations /Zo/ with ranges to 100 M Ohm, 1 GHz, 1 femtoF etc.
https://vintagetek.org/tektronix-circuit-computer/
I still have two, the cursor plastic is easily damaged.
Bon Chance,
Jon
PlainName:
I'm surprised no-one has made copies of these and others.
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