HP48

[Neil Pate]

Anybody remember how to use one of these? About 23 years ago I was pretty handy with mine, and today I could not even figure out how to convert degrees to radians!

Has there been a better RPN compatible calculator since then?

[Antoine Chalons]

omg... hp calcs, i hated them! I was more of a TI-8x guy

my first coding experience was on a TI-80 in 1997 😱

[Darren]

Aww man, I loved my HP 48GX. Bought it in high school. Sold it after college because I needed the money. I still have my HP 32SII, which is the best non-graphing calculator I've ever owned.

I know @Fab still uses an HP 48, she probably knows how to convert degrees to radians.

[hooovahh]

I was a TI guy, but likely just because it was what I was exposed to in High School. There my mom bought me TI-82.  It worked well up until partial derivatives and systems of equations in college.  I wrote a program to do this manually but due to precision of the calculation only worked on simple problems and the values wouldn't be right for complicated ones.  So I bought a TI-89 Titanium used for $100.  Basically the most powerful calculator they'd allow.  Had it all through my EE degree.  Even used it to hack my PS3 years later. Then I lent it to a family member for their college and haven't seen it since.  Not that I've really needed it since.  Oh and look at that new today they are still over $100.  I once asking to use a TI emulator on my laptop in class because I was too cheap to buy a new one.

[crossrulz]

I'm also a TI guy.  The TI-83 was the recommended calculated in high school, but I already had a TI-82.  The only real difference was the handling of unreal numbers.  I had to do some special programing to handle i in my Pythagorean Equation program.  In college, it was the TI-89.  I used to have all kinds of programs I wrote/distributed, including one I wrote that was to handle an entire exam for one class.  I think they are long gone now.  I still have both calculators, but I usually end up using the TI-89 emulator on my phone.

[Bryan]

I had a TI-85 that I had to buy for college.  Loved that thing.  Lent it to a friend of mine where I used to work, who accidentally left it in a conference room and I never saw it again.  They gave me their TI-83 as a replacement, but I had a lot of programs I wrote on my 85 that were lost. 

Edited May 18, 2020 by Bryan

[sam]

Yes,  I was very committed to HP48, wrote many programs and games back in the day, which can still be found. 

I still use it daily, but as emulator on my Android.

 

here is how:

1. green shift -> units (#6)
2. hit next couple times to get to Angles menu (top row of buttons)
3. choose your deg Angle
   1. enter number
   2. hit degree menu at top
   3. you can hit enter to make a duplicate
4. to convert a unit to another
   1. purple shift -> desired unit.  this takes the top stack and converts (replaces the stack) hence I like to make duplicate.
   2.  

 

[Neil Pate]

I also use the Android emulator, but normally for nothing more complicated than multiplication 🙄  (tragically this is the life of a 40 year old engineer...)    I still love RPN though ,even if it is just for addition and multiplication!

My wife actually has the next one up, I think it is the HP49G. It has the rubber keys and is terrible! I love the solid clicky hinged keys on mine.

One of the most terrifying moments of my life was when I was taking a leak before an exam in 4th year EE and I dropped my calculator which bounced off the concrete floor. I had to finish my pee, then slowly unzip the fabric case and inspect the big LCD screen which I was convinced must have been shattered. Thankfully it survived!