Pocket Calculator Thread

[Joe P]

Steve,

My dad bought something very like that in about 1971 or 1972, except that in place of a & button it had a √ button, which was very cool. None of my mates had a square root function on their dads' calculators.

Our school allowed the use of calculators from the third form (~age 13-14) onwards (I can't translate this into 'year X' or 'grade' sorry) and recommended two models, one of which was the Texas Instruments Ti30, which I got. Exactly like this one:

I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.

That TI looks familiar. I may have had one in high school, before I got the HP for university.

I'm sure everyone knows this, but it's neat that the calculator on iPhones and iPods morphs into a scientific calculator if you turn the device so the screen is in landscape format.

Joe

 

[billo]

I‘d love one of those, but as you say it gets seriously expensive for a nice example. I do however have this:

I bought it a few years ago (it was only £30 or so) just to learn how mechanical calculators work. It is certainly not a pocket calculator though, but neither is my Toahiba upthread!

We used to have an older version of that and during summer vacations we would put in huge numbers and set it going, the winner was the one who could keep it churning for the longest

 

[gintonic]

My Casio fx-451

bought as it could handle binary, hex and octal with the logical operators. Also had loads of imperial to metric conversions. Think I bought it in about 1982 as I started my A'Levels

20231105_163611 by uh_simon, on Flickr

 

[martin clark]

^ that was the top-trumps winner on number-of-functions in the Argos catalogue, wasn't it...

 

[Tony L]

Steve,



That TI looks familiar. I may have had one in high school, before I got the HP for university.

I'm sure everyone knows this, but it's neat that the calculator on iPhones and iPods morphs into a scientific calculator if you turn the device so the screen is in landscape format.

Joe

It amazes me there is no built-in calculator at all in iPadOS. I know there are a whole range of third-party options from the App Store, but that is not the point. There should be one included, and a good one too.

 

[Alex N]

Just looked to see if my Braun on the last page, a reissue of Dieter Rams and Dietrich Lubs’ ET66 from 1987 (the og iPhone calculator), is still available; and it’s less than half price here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DUDU2Q6/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

I got mine when it was first released around ten years ago, and it’s a lovely thing to have.

 

[Joe P]

Tony,

It amazes me there is no built-in calculator at all in iPadOS. I know there are a whole range of third-party options from the App Store, but that is not the point. There should be one included, and a good one too.

I agree, a calculator (ideally something Brauny) should be one of the stock apps. I ended up buying one for a few clams, but it should be included.

I imagine the coding for a calculator would be at the easier end of things, unlike, say, an app that integrates a GPS and real-time map with Pokémons in your neighbourhood. Now that would be cool if someone could be bothered to create such an app.

Joe

 

[Seeker_UK]

I also have an Fx4000p, and somewhere I have a Casio programmable of similar vintage, but I can't find it, not even a photo on the internet.

 

[Joe P]

By the way, have I posted a picture of my awesome Sharp CT-550, the calculator that looks like a communicator?

Joe

 

[Joe P]

By the way, it's really hard to hold a calculator while giving the Vulcan salute with one hand while taking a picture of it with the other. In fact, it's damn near impossible!

Joe

 

[dan m]

I'm sure everyone knows this, but it's neat that the calculator on iPhones and iPods morphs into a scientific calculator if you turn the device so the screen is in landscape format.

Joe

If only it had an RPN option…

There’s an OK free RPN calculator in the App Store https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/rpn-30/id1451413517

 

[Yank]

Give me RPN or give me death.

I have two of these, one at home and one at work:

This one is from 1983, my other one is the reissue from 2011.

 

[Yank]

Something a bit different, prompted by laying eyes on this beauty:

SwissMicros Model DM32 RPN Calculator

The DM32 is our enhanced classic all-rounder based on the HP 32SII. 171 functions, of which 75 are directly accessible from the keypad. Programmable. Conversions, statistics, fractions, equations, solver and more. The perfect choice for almost everybody. BETA firmware installed, updates will be...

www.swissmicros.com

Swiss engineering, high precision calculation and reverse Polish notation. Phwoaaarrrr!!

Seriously, I used to love mucking around with programmable calculators as a nerdy teenager and other kids liked playing (e.g.) my primitive version of Blackjack against a cunning electronic adversary.

Another thing that reminded me of those days is finding this rather niche item in one of those little local book-swap boxes:

Pocket Calculator Game Book By Edwin Schlossberg | Used | 9780552980050 | World of Books

Buy Pocket Calculator Game Book: No. 1 By Edwin Schlossberg. Available in used condition with free delivery in the UK. ISBN: 9780552980050. ISBN-10: 0552980056

www.wob.com

I owned this very book as a teenager, so I couldn't resist swapping something for it. Flipping through it, I'm pleased to see that the games are as boring as I remember them being.

Anyway, feel free to share your memories, recommendations, etc. Surely I am not alone in loving these things?

PS: Will leave it to someone else to post the relevant Kraftwerk tracks.

I am sorely tempted, but CHF 249 is $277 US. Still, if one of my HP15Cs dies, the HP12s that they still sell today are a poor substitute.

 

[cctaylor]

I still have my Slide Rule some things you can't throw away.

I have my one from school and my father's.

 

[Joe P]

Dan,

If only it had an RPN option…

There’s an OK free RPN calculator in the App Store https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/rpn-30/id1451413517

The calculator app for OSX has RPN mode. Doesn't seem like it would be hard for it to find itself on a phone.

Joe

 

[RJohan]

710 77345
710 0553

anybody else remember these?

Forbidden today as it has to do with CO2 pollution.

I thought I was the only one to keep old calculators. Should have a 1975 HP 21 somewhere, plus a Casio wrist watch calculator.

 

[JensenHealey]

I have a TI-85 graphing programmable calculator still in my office drawer - not likely to be able to remember how to use it.

I did have it loaded up with work relevant programs back in the day - the graphing was not needed.

I always had the latest and greatest TI that I could afford when I was at uni in 75-78. A few mates were rich enough to have HP jobbies.

I seem to remember buying one calculator for about £80 - which was a lot of wedge when my weekly living budget was about £30! But it got me through a stats exam that I would have struggled with otherwise - the powers had not caught up with the fact that some calculators could do stats!

 

[Yank]

I always had the latest and greatest TI that I could afford when I was at uni in 75-78. A few mates were rich enough to have HP jobbies.

I seem to remember buying one calculator for about £80 - which was a lot of wedge when my weekly living budget was about £30! But it got me through a stats exam that I would have struggled with otherwise - the powers had not caught up with the fact that some calculators could do stats!

Another big boon to students, stats or otherwise, was the introduction of the HP25C circa 1975, with "Continuous Memory". The ability to store programs, and have them still be there when you turned it off and back on, was of immense value.

 

[sean99]

gimme a Casio

gimme a smartphone. Between windows calculator (which is pretty awful, but adequate) and my iphone I never use a calculator now.

 

[gintonic]

windows calculator

i think that is ok (Win11)