Posted on 10/24/2019 7:07:53 PM PDT by DoodleBob
The 12c calculator from Hewlett-Packard is one of those products that is so ubiquitous and familiar that you almost forget it exists, yet at the same time is so different that there's almost nothing like it. Whenever someone pulls it out of a drawer or pocket to do a calculation, no matter how trivial, you know you are dealing with a professional. Remarkably, it has been in continuous production for over 35 years, with very few changes. While there are now fancier and in some ways more sophisticated calculators, such as with screens for doing graphs, the 12c remains a cult status symbol for professionals.
And people really bond with their 12c's. I'm reminded of the chant from the movie Full Metal Jacket, when the recruits are first learning to use their rifles:
“This is my rifle. There are many like it but this one is mine. My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my rifle is useless. Without my rifle I am useless.”
The 12c has much the same aura: They are mass-manufactured, yet individual. Learning to use it well involves a pretty steep curve, and, like a sophisticated piece of software, the learning curve keeps going as you get better, egging you on to dive deeper, deeper. For accountants and other financial professionals who need to go beyond basic adding and subtracting, there's a host of sophisticated functionality. Amortization? Yes. Compound interest? Certainly. Calculating Net Present Value and Bond yields? Of course.
Toda the 12c can be bought for under $50. But when it was launched on September 1, 1981, it retailed for $150 (equivalent to over $400 today). Even at that price it was an instant success.
(Excerpt) Read more at massmadesoul.com ...
Heh. And my ACS contest win got me a slide rule. Sign of the times.
The reverse Polish notation seemed kooky at first but its utility became soon apparent and was by far the most efficient way to use a calculator for scientific purposes.
Me too, got me through my ME degree. Made the mistake of purchasing an HP product for my college bound high-schooler. Total mistake. NO advanced high school math programs facilitate the use of RPN to crunch down a complex expression to get to the final numerical answer. The TI n-spire CX or CX CAS models are more or less strictly required to the exception of all other manufacturer’s product, even though the math teacher is obliged to claim otherwise. It turns out the TI is all the teacher himself or herself has ever used. It’s a shame because RPN is so logical and natural, vastly cutting down on time spent computing the final answer, and really limiting opportunities for error. But you can’t fight the rising tide I guess.
Also have an HP 15C simulator on my android phone.
When my son was in Junior High, I showed him how to use a slider rule. He spent one whole afternoon on the couch trying to get it to screw up. ;o)
slider rule = slide rule
Loved that little bastard.
Which is most all math to millennials.............
/snark
BSME 1976
MSME 1979
A fellow HP48 user! I use m48 on my iPhone several times per week. Still have my 48GX in it’s soft case sitting in my drawer too. Been going strong for close to two decades now.
Slide rule enforces order of magnitude discipline, and with that, some sense of understanding the answer.
I went from BSME to factory work ... making the factory work ... and then 1998 JD. Go figure.
Ah, yes - HP and their RPN calculators. My dad was an electrical engineer and used to have one - he considered it a huge upgrade from the slide rules he’d had to use when he was in college.
Ahhhh...now I get it. Laz approves.
We landed on the Moon before using hand held electric calculators like this. That amazes me the most.
LOL
I had to read what it was first :)
I still have my HP 11c that I bought in the early 80’s.
After you master the stack, pushing numbers onto the stack, popping them off the stack, and using postfix operators to process the last two numbers on the stack, the genius of RPN shines through. It is very hard to change back to an in-fix (conventional) notation calculator after learning and understanding RPN.
I have both my 12c and 11c bought around 1980 while I was an MBA student and a young engineer. These EACH cost about $400 in today’s dollars. They were largely retired once VisiCalc came out.
I have an absolutely brilliant 11C emulator app on my iPhone and iPad. I use them all the time.
A classmate and I participated in an ACS contest. He was third in the state. But we had the highest combined score so we won a bunch of lab supplies for our high school.
And the batteries never go dead. LOL
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