HP Forums

Full Version: Advantage/CCD Matrix Challenge
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.

Howdy folks, here's a challenge problem to get you going during the summer doldrums... for those with an inclination to archaeology SW development of course/

I've finally completed the SandMatrix (soon at a TOS near you), which as its name should imply is a nice compendium of Matrix programs and routines. Its main feature is that it includes all the Advantage matrix functions, so yes it's a bank-switched module pretty much like the Advantage itself was.

I added a nice bunch of matrix operations, (MLN, MEXP, MSQRT, MPWR) but one program I gave up on was to calculate the p-th. root of a matrix. So here's the challenge (and also request) for those more apt than me at these affairs: write a FOCAL program to calculate the p-th. root of a matrix, using as many Advantage Matrix functions as possible.

The algorithm is described in JM Baillard's site:
http://hp41programs.yolasite.com/matrixop.php

scroll down within the page until you see the corresponding section (#13).

If you try your hand at it you'll soon find out that with the advantage matrix function set it's often more about managing the Alpha register than the actual data registers and algorithms. This may be why so few and far in between programs were written in its heyday for it?

Looking forward to seeing your solutions...

Cheers,
'AM


Edited: 10 Aug 2013, 1:17 a.m. after one or more responses were posted

Quote:
This may be why so few and far in between programs were written in its heyday for it?

In my case it had more to do with the advent of the HP-42S which I bought when I started studying. Sometimes I missed synthetic programing or the time-module of my HP-41CV. But concerning complex numbers or linear algebra I never looked back: neither the math-module nor the CCD-module could compete with the HP-42S.

Thanks for posting this challenge. I really hope that I find some time to participate.

Kind regards

Thomas