I don't understand the HP-50g, what am I missing?

[John Keith]

(04-08-2024 10:57 PM)carey Wrote:  So after plowing (U.S.) (or ploughing, U.K.) through the 887 page User’s Guide, the 693 page AUR awaits!

I personally find the user's guide to be of little use, and very annoying due to separate examples for algebraic and RPN mode in every subject. The AUR on the other hand is very good. Importantly, every entry has a heading called Access which lists the keystrokes used to access the command. The menu system is indeed complex and often un-intuitive but you will get used to it.

Another major difference between the 48 series and the 50g is Exact mode. You can toggle between Approximate mode and Exact mode by holding down right-shift and pressing Enter. When in exact mode, all numbers entered are exact integers unless they have a decimal point. Exact integers can be converted to floating-point numbers using ->NUM (right-shift Enter). Quotients that are not integers are returned as fractions, e.g. '3/8' rather than .375. Integers can be any size that will fit in memory, so you can type 999! and all 2565 digits will be exact.

This brings up another issue with complex numbers: Complex numbers entered with parentheses, e.g (3, 4) are always floating-point numbers. To get exact complex numbers you must enter them as an expression: '3+4*i'.