RPN83P: RPN calculator for TI-83+ TI-84+ inspired by HP-42S

[johnb]

(01-07-2024 11:28 PM)dm319 Wrote:  Well done! It installed fine on my TI-83+, and seems to work well. I don't understand complex numbers at all, I'm kinda a bit suspicious of them.

For practical applications, complex numbers are really only needed (AFAICR) for electrical engineering and physics. There, you will find problems that are solved quite nicely by using them, and there are things in the real world you use all the time that rely upon those solutions. (Mobile phones for example.) So, if complex numbers really aren't your thing, it's not a big deal unless you're an EE, physicist, or mathematician.

I believe complex numbers originally arose from the fact that it irks mathematicians to say that any given operation is undefined for some values. For some of those instances, there's no way around it, but for roots of negative numbers, there was, and complex numbers were the result.

There's not a single area of mathematics that I can think of that hasn't found applications somewhere once it became rigorous enough (though my knowledge is annoyingly paltry compare to some people's). Invent it, and they will come. LOL.