Is RPN still relevant?

[JimP]

(10-07-2015 08:53 PM)Thomas Klemm Wrote:  You can do the same with multiplication:
\[
\begin{align}
12 \times 37 &= (4 \times 3) \times 37 \\
&= 4 \times (3 \times 37) \\
&= 4 \times 111 \\
&= 444
\end{align}
\]

It would feel easier to me, personally, to say 10x 37 = 370, then add 2x37 (=74) to that. But when written down, the old method of carry-the-number to the next column just seems less complicated than some of the elaborate breakdowns, appear to generate. Particularly with addition and subtraction. Long division and long multiplication was something my dad taught me when I was six (and I'll be eternally grateful to him for doing that!) -- but in the mid-1960s that was a more important art than it is today!