Next Generation Calculator

[Steve Simpkin]

For engineering (and probably science) applications I don't think that "calculations" are now being done very often using "calculators" on phones, tablets and laptops. In my experience manual "calculations" of any kind are just not needed as often. When I started as an electrical engineer in the 80's I had to manually calculate the value of almost every resistor, capacitor and inductor in the analog circuitry I designed. Even with digital circuits I had to calculate many timing values. I did these calculations manually well into the 90's using a series of ever more powerful HP calculators. Over time the need for manual calculations gradually decreased. Specialized computer aided design software, spreadsheets and the "typical" application schematics contained in device datasheets all but eliminated the need to manually calculate the values of anything using a calculator. In my opinion, these changes in the engineering profession and the newer tools that have evolved have mostly eliminated the need for a physical calculator in this role. For myself, I will still go out of my way to find an excuse to use my HP-48SX to do a quick calculation but I can't imagine someone younger who didn't have to use a calculator as a required engineering tool needing one.