Our oldest son with double engineering degrees had the HP41C we had given him his senior year, and it was stolen from his pick up a couple years ago. They stole his company Apple phone and discarded it after it was blocked.
He found a retired engineer and bought his HP41C.
Now, that calculator is never is never left in any vehicle or on his desktop. It stays on his hip in its holder until he comes home from work for the day.
That’s my dad’s calculator. He is a PhD in math ;)
My old HP-21 is still around somewhere. I played with it a lot after getting it, and managed to accidentally derive the mathematical constant “e” (2.71828...) My method impressed a university professor who showed it to a math professor friend, who told him that yes, that was one way to derive “e.” So someone else had already discovered it. Boo.
I think I still have my HP 17 b II around somewhere. Used about half of what it could do but it was very dependable.
Back in my college days all the science majors used slide rules. I still have mine though I would have to relearn using it.
Hoping my HP-15 and -42S last forever,
I do not like the dumbed down stuff these days.
RPN or die!
Why not use a slide rule instead
Saving, to read later. I first saw calculators in grade 7. As a senior, my dad bought me some HP calculator, my first. Very nice.
I’ve had a 12C for probably going on 30 years. I know HP has an upgraded version, but the fact the 12C is still selling tells you a lot. I think they were priced around $50-odd dollars back then (mine was a gift). Heck, the instruction book was bigger than the calculator.
The HPs use revers Polish notation, IIRC. They say it’s really quick when you get the hang of it. However, the TI-85 had functions that the HP couldn’t do, like the ability to solve X for complex numbers.
RPN.
I had an HP-41CV to get me through E.E. school. Best calculator ever made. You couldn’t use it during a test though. If the instructor saw you using it, you were done right there. If another student saw you using it, they’d laugh at you. A calculator is not going to tell you how to solve a circuit problem, and the component values chosen by the instructor were such that you could do the math in your head. I remember spending hours programming it. Great fun.
Me too
I have used the HP 12-C and its predecessors for years. Still the best handheld, easy to learn/use out there.
I miss the HP 33 engineering calculator. I have a really old one I need to get fixed, if that is even possible.