Three resistors in parallel: 4.7 k,Ω 22 kΩ, and 3.3 kΩ. Quick! What’s the equivalent value? You can estimate it, of course, but if you want the actual 1.8 kΩ (approximately) answer, you probably reached for some kind of calculating aid. I have two slide rules on my desk, and plenty more a few steps away, but I don’t use them much, honestly. I have a very old HP-41C — arguably the best calculator ever made — but I am usually afraid to use it as it is almost 50 years old and difficult to repair. I also have an HP-28S on my desk, a replica HP-41C, and a few others in desk drawers. There are also dozens of calculators on my desktop computer, my phone –including the official HP Prime app — and the web browser.
I often see newer calculators from HP, like the Prime G2, or “new” HP-like calculators like the ones from SwissMicros, and think I should pick one up. Well, technically, HP licensed their calculators to Moravia, so even a “real” HP calculator isn’t from HP anymore. But, in the end, I always realize that my need for a physical calculator is so diminished that I can’t justify buying anything new, and I can barely even spring for a $10 one at the thrift store unless it is a real collectible.
Mind you, I’m not talking about RPN versus algebraic. I could say the same thing for TI, Casio, or Sharp calculators. I just don’t know why I need one anymore, even though I still, for some strange reason, want them.
For the record, I did use an HP-41C to check the resistor math, but it was in the form of an app on my phone, not a real calculator. On the same computer I’m writing this on, I have HP-41C emulators, the Prime emulator, and a bunch of other calculators. Yet I still pick up my phone and use the familiar key layout of the HP-41C. I don’t know why. The replica 41C, unfortunately, has a landscape-oriented keyboard, so while I like it, it doesn’t satisfy my finger’s muscle memory.
Which leads to this Ask Hackaday. Do you use a calculator? Why? If you don’t, do you use a fake calculator on your phone or computer? Or do you just send your math to Google or Wolfram? I suspect some of the answer will be generational. I was in high school before calculators started showing up in schools, but they took over quickly.
There is something satisfying about having a purpose-built device to do your math. No long boot sequence. No switching apps. No messages coming in while you are typing in numbers. For the ultimate convenience, you could wear it on your wrist. The Apollo mission that docked with a Russian spacecraft carried an HP-65, and nine early Space Shuttle missions used an HP-41C. But even astronauts now don’t have a standard-issue calculator. Pilots sometimes use electronic E6Bs, but many still use the mechanical version.
Of course, I do collect slide rules, so maybe I just need to accept that calculators are yet another tech relic to collect. But someone is still buying them. I’d like to be one of them.
With the current state of tech, you can easily build your own calculators. There are several options.
I have a collection of calculators and slide rules for nostalgia and display. I use the RealCalc app on my phone for day to day things. Since phones can run full spreadsheets and more, there’s really no reason other than nostalgia to have hard-wired capabilities that cannot be changed/updated/mutated to track your useage.
(Bonus points if you remember running your calculator’s battery out before the end of an exam. Double points if you remember the person sitting near you smashing their calculator to bits in frustration when it happened to them.)
Born in 72. At work I have a cheap sharp solar. At home I have two one a Sharp fx-260 that does fractions and a Rockwell 18r form the mid 70’s that is just a super cool calculator. There is a person selling HP 16c kits on The auction site that I may well buy one of.
I use my HP 15C more often than my 41CV, and I use both because it’s faster to use buttons than a smartphone screen.
I prefer the physical buttons of a real calculator, but for most things I just put up the the touchscreen on my phone or using the OS calculator. Over the years I have had a TI SR-50, SR-59, HP 15C, and an algebraic HP, along with several cheap ones. All the good ones are either dead or stolen, so I reach for a dollar store calculator if I want a physical device. The HP 15C app on my phone gets some use too.
The 21st century calculator will have AI :)
I use Qalculate, because it handles units well.
I use whatever device is both closest at hand and suitable for my immediate needs. My computer has a seemingly endless assortment of calculation mechanisms, my phone has its default calculator for quickies that I’m too lazy to do in my head and pCalc for anything elaborate, but my go-to is a TI Programmer II that I got in exchange for my 1977-vintage TI Programmer I in 1985 when TI did a 1:1 swapout for some unknown reason. The TI has been in continuous use for these past 41 years, and I think I’m only on about the third or fourth set of batteries. I’ll wear mourning clothes for a year if/when it ever dies…
I have a 41C-like calculator on my phone, a HP-41CX emulator on every desktop and laptop (“V41”), and a real 45 year old fully-loaded 41C in my desk drawer along with a HP32SII and a HP15c. (and a couple of unmentionable TI graphing ones).
The keyfeel of the real 41C is the best, and my fingers know its layout, but the care and feeding of its batteries makes me reach for the 32SII most times. The 15c landscape arrangement just bugs me, even though its keys are better than the ’32.
The PC-based emulator I use when a real calculator isn’t handy. The phone calculator is a last resort. Stabbing a glass panel to enter things is awful, even with the tactile vibration ‘tick’ turned on.
I’ve got an ridiculous number of classic HP calculators stashed around my home and office. When I use one I think about how it was meticulously designed by engineers for engineers, marketing be damned, and smile.