Re: A 49G or 48GX? Message #9 Posted by b.tokarczyk on 5 Apr 2001, 2:45 a.m., in response to message #7 by Les Bell (Australia)
I think Les [04.03.01 @ 20:03] has an important point in his reason #3 -- essentially, what is the unit you are comfortable with (i.e., the most effective with)?
From what I read, both you and I are in a similar situation -- muscled through college with the 41 series while always keeping an eye open to determine if there is a better solution for our work demands (I'm a structural engineer as well). I currently have access to all three (I own both a 41cv/cx and a 48gx, and I have been using the 49g off and on for the last four months) -- yet, I find I still grab the 41 in most situations.
As a structural engineer, you can very easily find yourself huddled over many pages of calcs on a daily basis, or you can be a manager of the huddled, basically verifying these calcs -- I don't know which one you expect to spend most of your time in. I do know that if I'm at the office and some impressive computations are developing, the ol' desktop is the workhorse (with one of the three above next to me, of course).
An important distinction may be what you find yourself doing day-to-day at work. If you are involved in some sort of higher-order math functions (FFT, complex graphing, non-linear programming), I would think the 48 (conventional layout/look/function) or 49 (pure efficiency/speed) would be the choice (if not for the graphing functions alone). Personally, I don't see myself using the HP for those tasks -- my desktop and our networkable/accessible files and spreadsheets are for those.
But, the differentiation to be made here is what you are bringing to the field, remote office, or simply a client meeting/working session -- every time I reach for the 41 (no question) -- maybe its due to the comfort level, maybe the speed of solution I can get using it. The 41 is versatile for our needs (struct/math/stat/mem modules + programmable if necessary), very unassuming and portable (i.e. 'pocket' calculator), and amazingly has survived (personally) many extreme conditions over the years (190' drop into sandpit
?). Plus, you can still buy, fix, replace essentially everything on every model available.
[As an engineer geek, I often find it interesting to notice what each employee's choice of a computational weapon may be
and I am often surprised at the simplicity of some (most) of the choices. Case-in-point, our chairman repetitively points out (jokingly) his use of the $4.99 Wal-Mart calculators by 'choice' -- due to the fact that he usually looses them weekly. Food for thought
]
Good luck!
Bryan
..
rants:
41 --
only one line display (obviously no on-board graphing capabilities)
expandable/portable/quick customization to situation
(
you all ready own one
)
48--
conventional display (i.e. registers make sense to a 15 year hp41 veteran)
wide array of available menus and solutions for many different engineering problems encountered
(
is it me, or does the 48 seem slow
)
49--
display does take some getting use to
RPN does seem to be an afterthought
the algebraic display convention can be a bit overwhelming
vast programming/programming capability (basically HP's latest and 'greatest')
definitely proves the 'power' in a show-an-tell situation
I really don't have a feel for how long it would take to get use to that crazy keyboard (and that alone can get a bit awkward in a client meeting with answers waiting/eyes watching
)
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