RPN Tutorial, Incl. Some Things HP Did Not Tell
RPN Tutorial, incl. some things HP did not tell Copyright © 2014 by Hans Klaver, The Netherlands RPN , postfix notation or stack logic , the calculator logic system used in many Hewlett-Packard (HP) calculators and simulations thereof (like the standard Calculator in Mac OS X in RPN-mode, start with ⌘R or Command+R), is easy to use and saves you time because there is no need to use brackets or =. What’s better, it gives you more insight into your calculations than using the ‘algebraic’ systems used by other calculators and it keeps you and not your calculator (see Appendix D ) in command of what is calculated. In 1972, more than 40 years ago, HP launched the HP -35 , the first pocket calculator with transcendental functions and the first with RPN. This same RPN is used in calculators sold by HP nowadays, like the HP -12C , HP -12C Platinum , HP -15C LE , HP 17bII+ and HP 35s , also in the amazing WP 34S and WP 31S , and in a slightly modified version in the HP 20b and 30b and in graphing calculators like the HP 50g and HP Prime . This tutorial is a tribute to the HP -35 and especially to the lay-out of the beautiful and informative HP -35 Operating Manual . As far as possible it uses the colours of the keys as they appear in that Manual, so the colours of your calculator’s keys will almost always differ; don’t get confused by that. The ‘Cheat Sheet’ below serves as a table of contents and as a summary for this tutorial.
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