zlacker

Not related to the monopoly stuff but I like HP calculators best! For college I used an HP 35S—it’s a programmable scientific calculator and fun to program because it uses RPN stacks for calculations and storing results.

>>bjornj+(OP)
I always preferred the RPN HPs. I used an HP-55 through most of college. (I started with an early TI scientific calculator; I began university just as calculator prices were really dropping and discontinued HP models only became relatively affordable a little later.) Then I had a variety of other HPs over the years including an HP-41CV with a Financial Pac.

Unfortunately, the modern "HP" calculators are not as well made or have as good a keyboard feel.

(I actually didn't have a calculator until college.)

>>bjornj+(OP)
Nothing beats my old HP-48G that I used in college. Unfortunately, HP has all but left that space and my HP 35S (yes, I do own one) is but a shadow of what HP calculators once were.

>>hvs+t2
Well, a 48GX would! (The same but with more RAM that's also expandable.) I have a 48G too, but nowadays I just use computers.

>>bjornj+(OP)
I have a 16C on my desk, fwiw.

>>bjornj+(OP)
I had to hunt online for a used HP when I took a college class in 2003(ish) because the final exam needed a calculator and I honestly had no idea how to use non-RPN (I'm sure I could have figured it out, but been much slower).

I'd been using RPN since high school.

>>bjornj+(OP)
Ah, the 35s — that's what I keep at work on my desk.

my first HP, a 15c, stays home, safe & sound, with it's original spine-bound manual. I think I've replaced the batteries three times in some thirty-five years.

also have a 32sII that I bought off a friend who'd gotten it as a gift for his gf who was starting some math/sci class … but "she didn't like it" (which I read as, "wth is RPN". her loss!)

>>macint+MZ
> I honestly had no idea how to use non-RPN

I feel the same way. I typically use "dc" for all my calculation needs. I recently needed to do some calculations on my phone and was very confused that it "knows" the order of operations. I already knew what order I wanted the operations performed in, thankyouverymuch.

2 + 3 * 9 = 29 but 2 3 + 9 * p = 45, for example. Apparently you have to press = every time you want to use the sub-result in the next calculation. It is very confusing.

I am not sure why we even have infix operators in mathematics to begin with. It just causes problems.