2023 HHC "How well do you know your HP 41 functions?"

[Gene]

The answer key as I used it is shown below. Note that there are other answers that can be given, but if you are like me, teachers and tests often said to select the "BEST" answer and that was ALWAYS in the eyes of the teacher. :-)

These were all from an old PPC Journal article!

1) B. LOG is not related to a trigonometry function.
2) C. X<>X is the only function that does not disturb the stack.
3) D. GTO 01 is not a conditional branch instruction.
4) A. Y^x is the only operation that requires two values.
5) E. ∏. A number keyed after ∏ will lift the stack.
6) B. LBL 01 is the only instruction shown that will advance the flying goose during a program.
7) E. X<>Y. A number keyed immediately after the others will overwrite the X-register value since they disable stack lift.
8) D. CHS does not save X in the LastX register.
9) D. FRC is the only function shown that only uses the X-register.
10) E. INT is the only operation listed without an inverse. LastX does not count as an inverse. For example, the sine of 25 is approx 0.4226. You can enter 0.4226 and press shift SIN to get approximately 25. The INT of 3.14 is 3. You cannot however, key 3 and get 3.14 since there is no direct inverse of INT.


Tie Breakers:

#1 - 2 Steps. #2 - X NE Y


the winner at the conference got 9 out of 10 correct. The tiebreakers were not needed. The winner was Eric Smith, who won a working HP-41CV with manuals.