We had a little conversation at work the other day regarding calculators. To the right you can see a photo of my baby. I didn't always use one of these. No, I cut my teeth on a Radio Shack scientific calculator that actually folded into a convenient pocket size. In fact, the doctor who first diagnoses autism in Rain Man used one as he was trying to stump Ray with tough math problems. Then I graduated to a Casio (I think FX-80) that I got from someone. I sold that and then acquired the FX-81 from my girlfriend in college. Finally, I upgraded to the HP.
The HP was not easy to use at first. The Reverse Polish notation was kind of tricky; however, as the linked article states once you get used to it you don't want to go back. I had a hard time ever using my friend's TI-85 after I got used to my calcuator.
I pulled it out of its case today, which was no small feat because the zipper is not in good shape. I think it may be corroding a bit here in my damp basement. At least I had the good sense not to have batteries in it since I had to scrape away a lot of corrosion the first time I used it post-college. I did my normal 1 1 + calculation and played with a few exponents. Then I put it away.
I realize that I likely won't ever have a use for this again. Maybe I can leave it to Noah or Lily. Then again, they might get beat up for having such a relic. Their professors may remember though.
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