Re: Trivia quiz and mini-challenge: Classic HP35 Message #3 Posted by Paul Dale on 7 Oct 2007, 5:19 p.m., in response to message #1 by Allen
I'm not sure of the sequence that requires the fewest keystrokes, I've not thought up anything shorter than keying in the digits.
What might be more interesting would be a practical method (i.e. at most a couple of hundred keystrokes) that uses a minimum of *different* keys to get the number 123456789 on the display. I.e. what minimal functionality is required in order to get this display.
Off the top of my head, I can think of a simple algorithm that requires four different functions / five different keys (need that shift). To get the '1' digit do something like:
CLx
orange shift 10^x
ENTER
ENTER
+
ENTER
+
ENTER
+
+
orange shift 10^x
Repeat similar sequences for the other digits and add them together.
I think I could replace the shift 10^x sequence with a CLx, COS, +, ENTER, y^x series but this doesn't reduce the number of different keys which have to function and would increase the length significantly.
I'm sure somebody here can do better...
- Pauli
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