calculators

[rittz]

I don’t have much of a calculator except one (with large numbers for the aged …”S”) for simple arithmetic. Which of all the calculators would you suggest would be useful to supplement Excel which can do almost everything I need to do? Larger numbers would be an asset.
j

 

[ishvaaag]

Mathcad, you can set the numbers to be big, it translates units of any kind automatically at ease, and provides fancy possibilities for the simple and difficult cases.

 

[IRstuff]

You can read: thread507-303725 for some ideas.

Mathcad, as much as I love it, is quite expensive. A free, Mathcad-like program is SMath Studio, which you can check out here:

http://smath.info/live/?lang=eng&referer=112

although units don't seem to be working correctly there. The PC version allows you to set the font size, etc.

The latest versions of SMath are here:

http://en.smath.info/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=561

TTFN

FAQ731-376
Chinese prisoner wins Nobel Peace Prize

 

[271828]

I use Mathcad a lot, but IMO it is not a replacement for a calculator as some almost seemed to indicate in the other thread. Different tools.

HP35s if you want a scientific calculator. HP48 or HP50 if you want a graphing calculator. See the other thread.

 

[IRstuff]

Well, the question was tied to whether you were at your computer or not. If yes, then Mathcad can certainly deal with the things that get glossed over, i.e., conversionless units usage, documentation of the calculation, etc.

What I said, was that if a portable version of Mathcad could operate on an iPod, then that would pretty much clinch it for me, since I wouldn't need to lug a decent calculator around with me.

TTFN

FAQ731-376
Chinese prisoner wins Nobel Peace Prize

 

[flash3780]

I love my TI-86 calculator (though I'm not sure that they make them anymore). It does matrix operations and is programmable. It also does graphing. I think that it can also transfer data back to a computer, though... I've never used that feature. You can also collect data from various sensors (though I haven't tried that either). Above all, however, it's a really great, solid calculator.