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| What's the current go-to calculator for electrical engineers? |
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| TimFox:
The Swiss DM41X I mentioned above does display the second column of your proposal (four numerical values in the stack), but not the third column (expressions). The first time (around 1971) I encountered RPN was in a (huge) Friden 132 desktop calculator (with CRT display), introduced in 1965 after adding the square root function to the earlier 130. It also displayed all four levels of the stack, as in the DM41X. However, it was inherently fixed-point: a thumbwheel switch shifted the decimal point on the display, but all lines had the same position. Prior to that, I did learn non-reverse Polish notation in a symbolic logic class, where the operator is placed ahead of the operands. It had several advantages over "Russel-Whitehead" notation for symbolic logic, including no special characters and no parentheses. As immature students, we joked that it was called "Polish notation" because none of us could pronounce "Łukasiewicz", especially backwards for reverse Polish notation. |
| tooki:
Also, some more HP Prime tips and tricks: - One of the first things I did was to program a few user functions for calculating parallel resistors. (I named them PAR2, PAR3, and PAR4.) Saves buttloads of time: I just type e.g. PAR2(1E3, 4E3) and Enter to get 800. :) - The Triangle Solver app added in the May 2021 OS update is basically a trigonometry app that doesn’t say it’s trigonometry. Useful for vector addition. - Entering units is clumsy, but useful on occasion nonetheless. But it won’t automatically parse units themselves (as in, if you calculate volts divided by amps, the output will be in volts over amps, not in ohms.) But the USIMPLIFY (unit simplify) function will do it, so enter USIMPLIFY(Ans) and it’ll tell you the output is ohms. - The Sketch command in the menu of the graph (in the standard Function app) isn’t to let you doodle on a graph. You draw a curve and it attempts to find a formula to fit it! If you first set the scale accurately and then draw carefully, it’s surprisingly close. (For the handful of formula types it recognizes, like linear, quadratic, and sine functions, that is.) - The Help is quite useful. You can press it pretty much anywhere and get a basic description of a feature. - The May 2021 update added the ability to save and load your calculation history, which can be handy if you are working on different things alternately. But equally useful is the ability to duplicate apps. For example, if you’re working on some task that requires you to solve two different sets of linear systems, you can duplicate the Linear Solver app so that you can keep one set in one instance and the other set in the other instance, instead of clearing and re-entering the unchanged data over and over. The top right corner is a tappable button that brings up the battery percentage, buttons to switch between degrees and radians, and the time and date, which you can tap again to bring up a calendar. |
| rsjsouza:
--- Quote from: BreakingOhmsLaw on November 18, 2021, 12:33:16 am --- --- Quote from: Berni on November 17, 2021, 06:19:54 am ---So the ideal calculator is really a lot about personal taste. --- End quote --- Truer words have never been spoken. I did not yet find a way of efficiently converting decimal/binary/hex on the HP Prime. If anyone knows a good practice, please let me know. --- End quote --- Indeed. Over the years I always used one of the advanced RPN calculators mentioned here for such base conversion operations (HP48SX/GX, HP35S), but a few years ago I got a vintage TI programmable that is tailored for this and has single button operations for base conversions and logic operations. The only two limitations are battery consumption (I have the older model with LED display, but there is a newer with LCD) and 32-bit only (covers 90% of my needs). Result: I ended up with two calculators on my main desk and a few others sprinkled around my workstations. :palm: |
| blacksheeplogic:
--- Quote from: rsjsouza on November 21, 2021, 02:04:43 am ---Indeed. Over the years I always used one of the advanced RPN calculators mentioned here for such base conversion operations (HP48SX/GX, HP35S), but a few years ago I got a vintage TI programmable that is tailored for this and has single button operations for base conversions and logic operations. The only two limitations are battery consumption (I have the older model with LED display, but there is a newer with LCD) and 32-bit only (covers 90% of my needs). Result: I ended up with two calculators on my main desk and a few others sprinkled around my workstations. :palm: --- End quote --- I have a both an HP Prime and TI nSpire. The TI nSpire always needs charging and the HP Prime is better in every way to use. But for quick and easy I use a Sharp EL-515S. It's 3 decades old 10 digit LCD, thin & small. For quick calculation esp base conversions I'm done before any of my newer calculators boot. |
| PlainName:
The FX-991ES is single-key conversion between bases (the primary reason I got this model). I though the Prime looks nice and have had the simulator on my desktop to try out and can't believe how difficult it is to do this kind of stuff. Even just entering a hex digit, for instance, needs FIVE extra keys not counting the actual number! It's ridiculous. |
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