How much has RPN/RPL spoiled you?

[AnalogJoe]

(06-03-2015 03:04 PM)Sukiari Wrote:  My wife has been a math teacher for years now, first at the university level and now that we've moved into the hinterlands, in a middle school. Hardly anybody in the math field uses an RPN calculator but there were a few young and old who did at the university.

The iPhone generation generally uses Wolfram Alpha as their graphing calculator. While phones are not allowed in standardized tests, they are by and large tolerated in class especially as a learning aid. I suspect that most of the high schoolers who buy a graphing calculator these days will only use it during tests where their phone is disallowed. Non-RPN / RPL calculators make more sense for this application because there is only a very short learning curve.

Anyway I suspect the pocket calculator will always be with us as long as we maintain a civilization capable of producing electronics, but I also suspect that RPN will continue to be somewhat of a niche system, and RPL is now officially 'done for' with HP's plans to discontinue the 50g. I got my spare 50g - did YOU?

/sweeps finger across virtual room

Wow, I cant understand how someone like your wife who's a math teach doesnt appreciate the value of RPN. But yes, Im an engineer and most of my colleagues love TI calculators, most of the heavy work is done with matlab, but calculators are still the prefered choice for quick calculations. Some things are just faster with calculators, for example, I've timed myself (yes im a nerd) and for stuff like solving linear systems of equations it takes more time for me to make a matrix array in matlab, and perform the necessary operations to get the answer, than using for instance the Linsolver tool on the HP50G.

Crunching numbers is also by far faster and easier on a calculator than a computer, im always like "where the heck is the ^ simbol on the keyboard" or stuff like that, also its a lot easier to just hit the key "sin" or "cos" than typing an entire command like sin(4).

And people who suggest iPhone apps. Im sorry I dont own a smartphone, so I couldnt tell...., but Ill just say this: I need REAL keys.

Im glad that RPN is still an option on the Prime, people argue that the Prime is not fully RPN like in the way its programmed or in the CAS window, well yeah but it is RPN where it matters the most which is in the HOME window where you perform all the number crunching, and thats fine by me...

As for the HP 50G, yeap I have my spare, at one time I thought that I should invest on several HP 48GX but Ive learned to replace the 48G with the 50G and I could definitely live without the 48GX. The 50G is like a fast 48GX with a cheaper keyboard and some new features, but overall they are both the same thing.

I hope HP keeps offering the RPN option in their future calculators, otherwise the Prime will be my last HP calc.