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Re: HP Graphing Calculators



"Timothy S. Sullivan" wrote:

I think it might be a generational thing. When I "grew up" the HPs were the
cat's meow and reverse Polish is an acquired taste. My students think I'm
nuts when they want to borrow my calculator and I have to explain that it
doesn't work like any of theirs.

I bought my first and only programmable calculator in 1979. I was sold
on the rationale that using an HP for a calculator reinforced learning
how to program in machine code for computers. I loved the calculator and
knew many other science students who had and loved them too.

However, times have changed. I haven't written any machine code for
over a decade and those of us who used to call DOS boxes "real
computers" because you had some real commandline control of them very
seldom open up DOS windows on our PCs (I predict most users will not
even notice this ability has disappeared in Windows ME). Efficiency of
programming has given way to ease of use. I expect a similar trend has
occured with programmable calculators. I very seldom see a reverse
Polish calculator on a student's desk. When you can plunk an equation
in such that it looks the same on your calculator display as it does on
a sheet of paper, its not obvious why you would give that up for reverse
Polish.

You can also add me to the list of those who say its been a long time
since I've had any use for a programmable calculator. Any time I'm
planning to do something that requires programming a computer is within
easy reach, and all I need for the rest is a very basic scientific
calculator. I'm also a strong believer in excercising some basic
disciplines: I do all addition and subtraction in my head and all one or
two digit multiplication or division either in my head or with a pen and
paper (depending on my mood), I also never use the 10^ option on a
calculator. I fear that if I lose my proficiency with basic arithmetic
or order of magnitudes, I will lose a good part of my basic intuition
for recognizing a correct answer (or more importantly, spotting when
I've made a mistake) with it.

\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\_/^\

Doug Craigen
http://www.dctech.com/physics/about_dc.html