Using an RPN calculator means nobody will borrow your calculator a second time.
"Can I borrow your calculator?" "Sure." "Where's the equal sign?" "There isn't one. You put in the first number, press enter, put in the second number, and press the sign." "You do it."
I never could get the hang of RPN, even though it was supposed to be “faster” with fewer keystrokes.
That brings back memories of circuits class! I can’t recall if I had the CV or the CX but i recall it cost me about $200 which was real money back then (1984).
I recall non engineers asking to borrow it and having similar conversations.
My 5 years elder brother and I were both engineering students. In 1971 he had a $400 HP with RPN. In 1976 I had a $79 TI with algebraic. Both could do the same calculations but worked differently. When did RPN leave the market? I never noticed it.
Geez, just the picture takes me back to college freshman year (1971). That calculator was ultimate status symbol....but was as powerful as today’s throw-away calculator.
Big hp/rpn fan here.
I had the 41cx, an 11c, and a 15c, then later the 48g & 49g. Loved them all.
Now I’m running the free apps go41c and droid48 as my favorite calculators on my motorola moto x.
No joke, but I use an RPN calculator every day. I have an HP calculator emulator loaded on every computer I own, including my iPhone. My 22-year old HP48SX works just fine, too.
I had one 30+ years ago. I suppose it ended up in the abyss of the kitchen junk drawer, or was lost in a move, but I sure miss it. I would spend extra time with it just for fun. :-]
Something to do with being at one with the “thought” process. I don’t know why it was called “reverse entry” because it’s the annoying equal sign that’s a$$ backwards, heh. That equal sign has been a pet peeve ever since.
I don’t use a calculator enough to justify tracking down a RPN calculator, but my old friend comes to mind whenever I open the primitive calculator on the computer.
2 + 2 = 2 ENTER 2 +
It just has more substance and meaning that way, lol. I’m sure you understand.
Thanks for trip down Memory Lane!
;-)
It took a few days for me to get used to RPN. No problems after that.
I still have 3 HP 12C financial calculators which use RPN.
It’s really hard to do things backwards when using a regular calculator. I never quite trust the answer I get.
I've had an HP calculator ever since the HP-35 came out.
My 16C is sitting in front of me, gets use every other day or so.
Every handheld device I have (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) has the HP Calculator emulator app on it (an excellent program for around $15 as I recall).
In 1985, the first significant program I wrote in my recently-learned new language of "C" was a command-line and interactive RPN calculator, extended to have additional features for writing scripts, variable-depth stack, file I/O, etc. etc. It is portable and runs on Unix (where it was developed), Linux, Mac OS-X, MS-DOS, Windows, basically anything with a command-line interpreter and a C compiler. That's almost 30 years now with only trivial-to-no source changes in each new machine, too. :)
I can't use an algebraic calculator without first thinking in RPN, then converting to the damn "infix" style.
There is a free Android app called “Droid 48” that has much of the functionality of an HP48GX, including Reverse Polish Notation. I spent about $274 (about $500 in today’s dollars) in 1991 on the slightly inferior HP48SX.
Excalibur is also a nice calculator download for Windows. I put it on any machine I use regularly.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Science-CAD/Excalibur.shtml
Still use my HP-41CV for most everything.
Loaning it to kids when they’ve forgotten their calculators for machining class is highly amusing. It’s one of the pleasures of my life to torment kids who think they know oh-so-much more about electronics and computers than old farts with an HP calculator.
I had a TI 21 function calculator in High School. Used it for chemistry and such. When I joined the Air Force I bought a HP for work and quickly fell in love with RPN and used that same HP all the way through college and my EE degree.
I love RPN, and dread the day that my HP15C dies. I got it in 1985, after the bookstore guy showed me how the stack entries lift and drop, and I have been sold on RPN ever since. Some years back I wanted a graphing calculator, but couldn’t find one with RPN.
Once you go RPN, you’ll never go back.
I owned a HP38E, which I soon replaced with a HP38C (continuous memory). I still own the HP38C, but Mrs. Scoutmaster thinks RPN is the work of the devil.
RPN is not a cure against only borrowing. Mine walked off from work one night, and showed up a few days later. Whicher night shift worker fancied it, dumped it off in purchasing. pretty much everybody in the plant knew I was pissed about the ripoff, but had the calcupunker been "one that people are accustomed to using," I doubt it would have found its way back.
The new version of the HP-15C is pretty darn fast, too.