HP Forum Archive 19

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HP-35 x^y key Message #1 Posted by Antonio Maschio (Italy) on 18 Feb 2009, 10:22 a.m. Hi, just a curiosity... In the HP-35 calculator page (the first pocket calculator), I read it had a x^y key instead of the modern y^x; my question is perhaps silly, but I have not a HP-35 to play with, so if one of you can explain me... to get, say 2^5 on my HP-12C I type 2 ENTER 5 y^x; what have I to type on a HP-35 to perform the same operation? I believe that, according to the x^y symbols, I should type 5 ENTER 2 x^y: is it correct? Thanks! -- Antonio

Re: HP-35 x^y key Message #2 Posted by Ignazio Cara (Italy) on 18 Feb 2009, 11:13 a.m., in response to message #1 by Antonio Maschio (Italy) Oh yes Antonio, this is correct on every HP-35, with red-dot or without. Regards from Sardinia. Ciao Ignazio

Re: HP-35 x^y key Message #3 Posted by Arnaud Amiel on 18 Feb 2009, 11:18 a.m., in response to message #1 by Antonio Maschio (Italy) The 35 does not have a 10^x key either so the x^y helped there. I still much prefer the 45 to the 35. Arnaud

Re: HP-35 x^y key Message #4 Posted by Karl Schneider on 19 Feb 2009, 3:10 a.m., in response to message #1 by Antonio Maschio (Italy) Hi, Antonio -- The topic of the x^y key on the old HP-35 came up several years ago, but I didn't bookmark the thread. It's possible that "x raised to the y" with y residing above x in the stack was the rationale for the convention. However, I believe that the real reason for x^y instead of y^x is absence of a 10^x key, as Arnaud mentioned. 10 x^y will easily compute the antilogarithm of a result. Especially when "-" computes y-x and "/" computes y/x, y^x is the natural definition. -- KS

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