Hello everyone,
I know from the power property that log(10^-12) should be -12. Wolfram-Alpha corroborates this.
However, when I evaluate this on both my HP 15C and 50g, the answer turns out to be -11. Here are the exact keystrokes I am using for my 15C:
10
EEX
12
CHS
g
LOG
Any ideas why this might be?
Thank you,
Daniel
Hint:
You will get the right answer if you do:
10 ENTER 12 CHS YX g LOG
Regards
Edit:
I should rather have said: "expected answer" above.
As Gerson says below, the answer you got is right too, to put it another way: EEX represents "10^" so 10 EEX x = 10 x 10^x = 10^(x+1)
Edited: 26 Jan 2012, 11:26 a.m.
Quote:
10
EEX
12
CHS
g
LOG
The answer is right. The input is wrong. You're actually entering 10*10 -12, that is, 101 * 10 -12 = 101-12 = 10-11
Enter the mantissa first, then press EEX and enter the exponent:
1
EEX
12
CHS
g LOG
When the mantissa is 1, it can be omitted.
Gerson.
Thank you for your help! I feel a bit imbecilic right now but I certainly shall not repeat my mistake.
Regards,
Daniel
Quote:
As Gerson says below, the answer you got is right too,
Bart,
I hadn't read your post yet when I said the answer of the calculator was right. "Expected answer" appears to be a more didactic expression, I should have used it myself. By the way, my HP-15C gave a lot of "wrong answers" to me, especially in the beginning, when it was just replacing a TI-59. Oh, and more recently, just some threads below my HP-42S was refusing to give me the answers I expected :-)
Regards,
Gerson.
Edited: 26 Jan 2012, 6:53 p.m.