HP 15c re-release, Anyone still using calculators 19

[Celt83]

For those looking for an updated RPN calculator there is a new version of the HP 15c that was released recently that looks to fix some bugs and significantly increase computation speed.
Link

Anyone still using handheld calculators beyond just punching in numbers these days?

I went on a bit of a “calculator” history detour a year or so back that had me using a slide rule for a bit, fascinating tools, and then transitioned to a keystroke programmable HP 11c and decided to treat myself recently and purchased one of the Swissmicros DM42.

 

[271828]

No one has mentioned that using postfix operations (RPN) makes you more money as there are less keystrokes in the calculations. It adds up - seriously.
It also makes you smarter (my opinion)

It's also easier to avoid mistakes with RPN. The bigger and more complicated the equation gets, the larger the advantage RPN has over algebraic.

When I graded exams, almost all of the students used TI-80something calculators. There were quite a few calculator errors. Also, they would write out expressions in multiple steps as they simplified this or that term. Error magnet. I think it's all those parentheses.

 

[SE2607]

Calculators?

What's next? Favorite pencil?

 

[271828]

Calculators?

What's next? Favorite pencil?

I'm partial to Pentel P207, 0.7mm. LOL

 

[XR250]

I use fine point Sharpies for everything. Cannot go back to lead or pens.

 

[XR250]

Speaking of calculators, everyone in our upper public school system is required to use TI84's. I imagine TI had a pretty good lobby going on. I liked math when I was in high school - no calculators. Even some of my college courses did not allow them.
Seems like the current public school math education is all about teaching you how to use a calculator and not concepts.

 

[Celt83]

Pencil:
Staedtler 2mm lead holder
Or
Kaweco Sport 3.2mm lead holder

Pen:
Staedtler Pigment Liner .3 mm
Or
Sakura Pigma Micro .3 mm

Being a lefty those two have had the lowest tendency to smudge.

 

[Celt83]

XR250: yeah TI has a pretty good strangle hold over the US education system. I’m tempted to get one of these new 15c and save it for my kiddo, RPN may be nearly nonexistent by the time he gets to highschool.

 

[271828]

Speaking of calculators, everyone in our upper public school system is required to use TI84's. I imagine TI had a pretty good lobby going on.

yeah TI has a pretty good strangle hold over the US education system.

I've wondered for a while why HP and maybe Casio hasn't sued TI over this stuff. Maybe they did, and lost.

I'm no lawyer, but TIs being required in public school sounds like an antitrust violation to me.

If not antitrust, then some sort of violation because the government itself is nearly forcing a monopoly. I don't know what that would be called.

 

[Celt83]

I think they may be “donating” equipment to the schools and in turn the schools may not exactly require TI’s but more indicate that the lessons will be taught on TI’s. They’ve been at it so long that it’s probably all the new teachers coming into the system know so harder for another player to get a foot in the door.
I see parallels to the foothold Windows and MS Office have, burned a ton a money to get it in front of everyone and become so common place that the investment to switch becomes a hard sunk cost to swallow so they are the default OS and office software suite almost globally.

 

[XR250]

I think they may be “donating” equipment to the schools and in turn the schools may not exactly require TI’s but more indicate that the lessons will be taught on TI’s

Nope, the student is required to buy 'em @ $120 a pop (at least that is what the teacher told me). I bought two for my kids.

 

[271828]

We had to buy TI-30somethings for them in middle school and then TI-80somethings in HS. I don't recall how the instructions from the schools were worded, but they certainly came off as "you must buy this model."

BTW, if I was buying an HP for evangelical purposes (LOL), I'd get a model that has a larger-than-four level stack. I used a 48G for years before I used my first scientific model with a 4-level stack. There were a few times early on that I didn't accurately go from inside-out and used too many lines. We all know what happens then. It dups the 4th level down and the calc is erroneous. To someone who didn't grow up on 4-levels that looks like a defect, not a user error.

 

[XR250]

Having an HP is like having a car with a manual transmission. No one can borrow it.

 

[Celt83]

Well shoot, there is always a surplus of TI’s on goodwill’s auction site so will likely be buying one from there when that time comes.

 

[Retrograde]

What's next? Favorite pencil?

I'm currently using a Blackwing Matte.

 

[mtu1972]

Our three kids are now in their 40’s, but I remember having to buy new calculators almost every year in Jr High and High School. You’d have thought we could hand some down from the oldest kid, but many years we had to buy two or three new ones. Somebody was probably getting some kickback.

gjc

 

[IDS]

Reviewing all the responses so far, shouldn't the question be, anyone not still using calculators?

Or is it just me?

I have a calculator somewhere, but I haven't used it for about 20 years.


Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

 

[Ingenuity]

Or is it just me?

It is just you

 

[IRstuff]

Computer always on > time to find Excel or Mathcad and start one up
Calculator around, somewhere > time to get up from computer and find

The former usually win

Not to mention, with the former, there's a record of the calculation that can be saved for copy/pasted to ET ;-)

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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[oldrunner]

Once before I said some of these things - but my introduction to big numbers for multiplication and division was a about a 3" thick logarithm book that required looking up large numbers and just adding them together and then getting the result from consulting the book. (1961) Remember putting them on some drawings at the left border. Awful. Before at school got a 7 or 8 inch circular slide rule which was more accurate than a 5" circular slide rule or a straight stick. (1952?) Still have the larger one in the slide out drawer at my desk. Never use it now.First 4 place calculator was a Olympia desktop type unit with one memory. Loved it for hand calcs. (1972). Finally bought a Wang programmable 600 with two keyboards - about $3600. Ribbon paper output that we pasted into our calcs. I don't remember how many steps we could use. Finally got an HP51 that used plastic magnetic strips with short programs. The calculator was mounted on a stand that included a paper printout that we pasted or taped to our hand calcs sheets. Bought the programs from another SE. Then we started using the Radio Shack Model II's that would run SAP 80 (50 nodes)(from Ed Wilson) and eventually Visicalc (Dan Bricklin) and onto Lotus 123 then Excel. Hired two high school girls that could code in Basic and they wrote a bunch of timber, concrete and steel programs. Still had to paste the output onto the calc sheets. Set up the basic set of calc pages in a template that we could move back a forth between pages using an index page (hyperlinked). (Had about 200 apps that we could bring into the calcs with all the documentation for plan checkers). Had rules for no numbers being hidden in a formula. Don't remember when I actually stopped using the TI 51. We didn't work for architects. Also had the latest flavor of computer on each on my engineer's desk. Almost forgot the hand cranked Curta calculator that I was using for surveying problems. (1958)

 

[Agent666]

Owned an HP49g until it crapped itself, then my current calculator HP50. Seen me though about 20+ years so far. Basically cannot live without RPN, just seems too hard going back to algebraic mode operations. If I have to work something else out at someone's desk I'll walk and get my own or let them run their own calculator.

I recall as astudent at first not really getting RPN, the having a freak out in an exam as was feeling like I was behind when having to enter these long algebraic formulas with lots of brackets, and swapping to RPN halfway through in panic mode and then finishing half an hour early. Never looked back.

100 percent agree with the sentiment that you avoid errors by more naturally by laying out the order of operations using RPN and utilising the unlimited stack is super handy.

I used to write programs for it using whatever the HP basic is. Still have a lot of the code equations stored in there that I wrote 20 years ago and use them often. It was a great help in exams at university, almost felt like cheating at times compared to the otherwise standard Casio FX82 calculator that most people had from high school....

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