Why do business calculators have log/exp but not basic trig functions?

[Gene]

Logs are used to solve for N in compound interest or annuity situations by "longhand" - not using the built in N button.

FV = PV (1+i)^N

N= LN(FV/PV) / LN (1+i)

Logs may also be used in regression by taking the LN of the Y values before entering the data points.


Trigs have very limited usage in business situations, true.

The REAL reason trigs should have been on every business calculator that had enough rom to put them in is to avoid having business students buy a competitor's scientific calculator to do chemistry and calculus classes and then buy a business model for accounting.

TI was VERY smart here much earlier than HP. The TI BAII Plus had trig and hyperbolics even (ha) for years and years before HP finally did it. Why? College students could buy the TI BAII Plus and have one calculator that could do everything they needed in general education / science classes and that same calculator could then do all they needed in business classes.

Someone who wanted an HP had to have two calculators. Bad idea.


Some of us complained directly to HP for years before they FINALLY (yay) came out with the HP 10BII+ machine which went above and beyond the TI BAII+ model. Great job Tim !

I think this review showed up in Datafile at the time:

HP10bII+ review



The basic competitor for the HP 10bII+ calculator is probably the Texas Instruments BAII+ calculator. The TI engineers are probably not happy with this new HP entry, since each of the functions shown below are present on the HP 10bII+ and are missing from the TI BAII+ calculator. Perhaps TI should rename their model the TI BAII– instead?

Functions on the HP 10bII+ not found on the TI BAII Plus
Entry of a number in scientific notation
Entry of a number with 12 digits
11 extra storage memories
PI
Normal distribution
Inverse Normal distribution
Student’s t distribution
Inverse Student’s t distribution
Best fit regression choice
Exponent regression model
Inverse (1/x) regression model
Weighted average
Gamma function
Markup calculations
Initial CF0 frequency other than one
No CPT (compute) key needed to solve

That is quite a list!