Originally Posted by allpurposeguru
|
|
HP calculators and RPN, while you have to learn how to use them, are HEAD AND SHOULDERS above ANY AOS calculator.
|
Concur.
|
Originally Posted by allpurposeguru
|
|
On the AOS calculator, you type it in exactly as you see it, including parentheses. Sometimes, due to pending operations, it will do an intermediate calculation and sometimes not. For example, when you type the + after the 2, nothing happens, but when you type the close-parentheses after the 3 it calculates. This means you have to keep track of what you're doing, and you will type in 14-15 keystrokes. Don't forget the * between 5 and pi, also.
|
Also concur ... however the statement "This means you have to keep track of what you're doing" implies that you
don't have to keep track of what you're doing with RPN which is clearly not the case.
I, too, have used RPN calculators (for over 30 years). Once this simple input method is learned it is far more consistent a method to use than AOS can be because you are handling the calculation the way a computer would by dealing with the expression in it's proper order-of-precedence. It's not any harder to use than AOS is, either - you just have to "see" how the expression is laid-out which is the way I encourage my Algebra students to see it anyway. The RPN approach also gives you the ability to "catch" an error earlier than AOS does as you watch the progress on a term-by-term basis (dimensional analysis on-the-fly if you will). If the term you're working on doesn't come out reasonably you can back-off and try again sooner than you might with AOS. With AOS you don't know intermediate results nearly as often and have to take by "faith" that the resulting answer is correct.
-CB :D