For anyone who remembers the Sinclair Scientific calculator, the site http://files.righto.com/calculator/sinclair_scientific_simul... has a good explanation of its way of calculating. It is unlike other machines, overcoming serious electronic limitations with some simple but clever approximate methods.
This little machine was my first calculator, a present from my Dad. Man, I loved that thing. It was so small that I could easily hold it, and strike the keys, with one hand. That single-hand aspect proved helpful in my undergraduate physics and chemistry labs. The RPN methodology also made it easy to work through complicated formulae without getting lost in parentheses.
Over time, the keys stopped working well. And then stopped working at all. I kept it for a year or two, but then got rid of it, having moved on to another calculator that was more powerful but much less fun. I don't even remember the brand.
Looking back four decades, I wish I had kept the Sinclair Scientific, for a memento. But I did not appreciate that a dead little machine like that, in its thin plastic case, would bring back so many fond memories. There's a life lesson in that.
This little machine was my first calculator, a present from my Dad. Man, I loved that thing. It was so small that I could easily hold it, and strike the keys, with one hand. That single-hand aspect proved helpful in my undergraduate physics and chemistry labs. The RPN methodology also made it easy to work through complicated formulae without getting lost in parentheses.
Over time, the keys stopped working well. And then stopped working at all. I kept it for a year or two, but then got rid of it, having moved on to another calculator that was more powerful but much less fun. I don't even remember the brand.
Looking back four decades, I wish I had kept the Sinclair Scientific, for a memento. But I did not appreciate that a dead little machine like that, in its thin plastic case, would bring back so many fond memories. There's a life lesson in that.