Is RPN still relevant?

[Matt Agajanian]

Hi all.

Here’s another point in favor of RPN’s relevance:

Since RPN calculators are now relegated to smartphone apps, there are generous amounts of RPN apps there: Cuvee’s options, HP’s own 15C app, i41CX+, Free/Plus 42, as well as other variants. 12C variants are in ample variants, too. With these as even a minute amount of RPN clones, it would seem to me that RPN still has a presence. Also, I would presume these buyers of RPN calculators would introduce and teach friends, relatives, their own kids the benefits and ease of use with RPN.

[Philk27]

(12-17-2023 03:36 PM)ttw Wrote:  Many years ago (in the 1970s), I would give a few nighttime seminars for students wanting to learn to use calculators. I found that most had algebraic calculators but that all of them found the RPN a bit more intuitive. This may seem funny but the difference is in looking at an expression and doing the operations. The RPN mimics one "evaluate from the inside out" rather well. Calculation isn't the same as notation.

With programmable calculators, we found (fooling around with expressions in early versions) that the number of keystrokes in RPN was around 1/2 to 2/3 that of algebraic; mostly because of not having to enter parethesis. I remember using (a now forgotten) continued fraction expression for estimating interest rates that took about 100 keystrokes in RPN but over 200 in algebraic.

This is exactly what’s brought me out of lurker mode and onto the Forum after many years! Covid saw me going back to un, and in teaching thm RPN they began to “grok” the maths much faster, even when it was purely symbolic maths. RPN was like a window into their own operating systems and sit at a framework to hang the maths on. For this crowd, being able to see the Stack is an absolute imperative! (And being a little bit neurospicy myself, that’s my experience, too).

[Philk27]

(12-18-2023 10:53 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  

(12-18-2023 01:57 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Hello!


Yes, but these are the three financial calculators (HP-12C, 12C Platinum and 17BII+), hardly suitable for normal school but rather for business school. All the ones that could be useful for mathematics and physics are way over 100$/Euros.

Regards
Max

The OP said nothing about math or physics, so my reply is still correct.

Also, probably most students in school today are not engineers, math or physics students, so these models are likely suitable for most of them, for real life that is. But not being certain exact models from TI or Casio, I agree that makes them utterly unsuitable for use in high school math classes.

And who's to blame for that? Neither TI/Casio, nor the various Governments, IMHO. It's lazy Math teachers, or maybe more clearly, lazy math teachers in the 90s and 2000's when it was easier for them to use what was used last year, rather than actually think and try using newer tools and devices. After 20+ years, all the authors had incorporated the old devices into their textbooks and now they're so entrenched even the device manufacturers in question can no longer innovate and introduce new models to move the teaching technology ahead. I've spoken with dozens of math teachers and not one of them felt it was reasonably possible to introduce new machines into their curriculum, fearing pushback from other teachers that don't want the boat rocked, etc. It's sad....

You might find this interesting. https://gen.medium.com/big-calculator-ho...ee165045dc

[Thomas Klemm]

(01-08-2024 07:11 AM)Philk27 Wrote:  You might find this interesting.