Not RPN or HP, but interesting. Message #1 Posted by Don Davis on 18 Dec 2002, 7:40 p.m.
I have seen Aurora calculators at discount stores and supermarkets for years. They are typically very cheaply made, 4 functions plus percent, and sold at a low end price - lower than a cheap TI or Casio.
In a California electronics store, I saw an Aurora scientific calculator, model SC150X. Since it was only $5.99, I decided to pick one up just to see what they offered. First, it is a very small clamshell design - smaller than any scientific calculator I have seen in current production. (I do have an old credit card sized solar calc, but they are out of production.) The plastic feels like the cheapest material known to mankind, so I cannot imagine that this would hold up to any sort of rough treatment.
However, the features are remarkably good. It has the trig functions and their inverses. It also has logs (natural and base 10), and their corresponding exponentials. Of course, there is an x^2 and a square root key. There is also a y^x and even a cube root key. Interestingly, the cube root key does allow correct computation of the cube root of negative numbers - I have seen others which do not. It has single variable statistics, polar to rectangular conversions, factorial (integer only), degrees to degrees-minutes-seconds, and a random number generattor. It also operates in hex, binary, and octal in addition to decimal.
Now, it's a bit confusing to use (to me) because it is algebraic and operation of R<->P and similar things are not intuitive in that system, but . . . overall, I am pretty impressed. For $5.99 in a size and weight that can truly disappear in a shirt pocket, it's pretty impressive.
Now, back to HP - where did I put my 42S??
Don
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