HP Forums

Hi everybody.

I hope the new year is treating you all well.



On my 50G, is there any way to enter vector or complex arguments in exact form? With the calculator in exact mode, whenever I try to put an irrational value (in exact form) into a complex number or vector, I get a "bad argument type" error. When working with polar coordinates (or vectors) in radian mode, it would seem completely logical to enter the angle in terms of pi, but alas, I can't do it. It seems I must first evaluate any irrationals to thier decimal approximations before using them.

The ability to accept arguments in exact form would seem to be a logical extension of the "exact mode" functionality of the 49g/50g series.

Am I missing a setting, or is there a tecnique that would let me do this?

Thanks and best regards, Hal

You need to be in algebraic mode when entering such numbers.

Press the tick key (just to the right of EVAL) first, then type your number.

For the complex numbers, get into the MTH menu, press NXT and CONST. There you will see the little i (SQRT(-1)) that you need.

For example, type '3+4*i', and it should go onto the stack or into a vector.

You can enter it this way:

for instance ['pi/2' '2*pi']

substitute pi with left shift SPC for the real pi symbol

The '' switches to algebraic input mode

The complex i is on left shift TOOL

Edited: 30 Jan 2008, 3:28 a.m.