HP Forum Archive 18

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Calculator newsletter Message #1 Posted by DaveJ on 8 May 2008, 5:52 p.m. I just notice this HP calculator newsletter. Dave.

[HP-35s] Calculator newsletter Message #2 Posted by Karl Schneider on 9 May 2008, 4:07 a.m., in response to message #1 by DaveJ Dave -- Thanks for the link! The HP-35s is highlighted in the third (latest) issue of the HP Solve newsletter, at http://h20331.www2.hp.com/Hpsub/downloads/HP_0408_Calculator_eNL_v1_2.pdf Two small things caught my eye right away: The headline read, "Feature [sic]Calculator of the Month", instead of "Featured". Then, the HP-35s was listed cutely as "Born: July, 12th 2007", also with the comma in the wrong place. This got my goat, though: Following this verbiage: Quote: NCEES and many colleges and universities around the world recommend HP Scientific Calculators to their students as the learning tool of choice for accurate and reliable results. ... Get professional performance from HP's ultimate RPN scientific programmable calculator—ideal for engineers, surveyors, college students, scientists and medical professionals. It is certainly the first choice of for science and engineering students, educators, and professionals. was a list of "Fun facts" including this one: Quote: To encourage exploration of the calculator by the user, the HP 35s does not give you a command to split a complex number into its real and imaginary parts. It leaves this as an exercise for the user, to be programmed using the SIN and COS functions." Crikey! Is that for real? Or was that just a marketing spin on the issue? ("Why, that's not a bug or oversight; that's a feature.)" I'll tell ya, NCEES testees and professionals don't need exercises and exploratory adventures; they need good answers quickly. I've already provided my feedback in writing on this and other issues, and I hope to help bring about some improvements. -- KS Edited: 9 May 2008, 11:36 a.m.

Re: [HP-35s] Calculator newsletter Message #3 Posted by Hal Bitton in Boise on 9 May 2008, 1:22 p.m., in response to message #2 by Karl Schneider Quote: To encourage exploration of the calculator by the user, the HP 35s does not give you a command to split a complex number into its real and imaginary parts. It leaves this as an exercise for the user, to be programmed using the SIN and COS functions." I assume they are referring to complex numbers written in polar form. Do you mean to tell me that the 35s does not have indigenous P>R and R>P (Polar to Rectangular and Rectangular to Polar) functions? Best regards, Hal

Re: [HP-35s] Calculator newsletter Message #4 Posted by Karl Schneider on 9 May 2008, 11:06 p.m., in response to message #3 by Hal Bitton in Boise Hal -- The only available P->R and R->P "conversions" are display-mode settings that work only on a complex number. There is no equivalent function for two real-valued numbers in the x- and y-registers. "ABS" will return the magnitude of a complex number in either form, and "ARG" will return its angle, much like RPL-based models. But, alas, there is also no equivalent of RPL's "C->R" function to simply separate a complex number into its components. (On the HP-42S, "COMPLEX" peforms the C->R operation upon a complex number or matrix in the x-register. The HP-15C provides no equivalent of C->R, but it's not absolutely necessary, as the components are individually accessible.) A quote from a post of mine from July 2007: "... you'll see why I consider the omission of Rec->Pol, Pol->Rec, Cx->Re (disassembly of complex number), and Re->Cx (assembly of complex number) on the HP-35s to be blunders." -- KS Edited: 9 May 2008, 11:21 p.m.

Re: [HP-35s] Calculator newsletter Message #5 Posted by reth on 10 May 2008, 12:00 a.m., in response to message #3 by Hal Bitton in Boise I love your use of the word "indigenous" addressing P-R and R-P (HP41 notation :) ) and back you up on it. As far as I am concerned that is the major problem of the HP35S regards reth

Re: [HP-35s] Calculator newsletter Message #6 Posted by Trent Moseley on 12 May 2008, 4:42 p.m., in response to message #5 by reth It must be noted that somewhere in the archives Reth has given us two short programs to achieve this end. tm

Re: [HP-35s] Calculator newsletter Message #7 Posted by Paul Dale on 12 May 2008, 5:15 p.m., in response to message #6 by Trent Moseley These two are the final versions of the conversions I (and others) came up with: P001 LBL P P002 FS? 10 P003 GTO P011 P004* Rv P005 Rv P006 (EQN) REGZ+i*REGT P007 ARG P008 LASTx P009 ABS P010 RTN P011* CF 10 P012 XEQ P004 P013 SF 10 P014 RTN R001 LBL R R002 FS? 10 R003 GTO R012 R004* Rv R005 Rv R006 eqn [REGZ*SIN(REGT),REGZ*COS(REGT)] R007 [1,0] R008 x<>y R009 * R010 EQN LASTx*[0,1] R011 RTN R012* CF 10 R013 XEQ R004 R014 SF 10 R015 RTN They were submitted to the software library back then but still no sign of them there. - Pauli

Re: Calculator newsletter Message #8 Posted by Thomas Radtke on 9 May 2008, 4:11 a.m., in response to message #1 by DaveJ From the April issue: "To encourage exploration of the calculator by the user, the HP 35s does not give you a command to split a complex number into its real and imaginary parts. It leaves this as an exercise for the user, to be programmed using the SIN and COS functions." That's either rediculous or self-irony. Edit: Karl was faster! :-) Edited: 9 May 2008, 4:12 a.m.

Re: Calculator newsletter Message #9 Posted by Antonio Maschio (Italy) on 9 May 2008, 9:57 a.m., in response to message #8 by Thomas Radtke Thomas and Karl: you're right! That's ridiculous! Astonishing from HP! -- Antonio

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