Posts: 416
Threads: 78
Joined: Mar 2006
Hi, just a curiosity...
In the HP-35 calculator page (the first pocket calculator), I read it had a x^y key instead of the modern y^x; my question is perhaps silly, but I have not a HP-35 to play with, so if one of you can explain me...
to get, say 2^5 on my HP-12C I type 2 ENTER 5 y^x; what have I to type on a HP-35 to perform the same operation? I believe that, according to the x^y symbols, I should type 5 ENTER 2 x^y: is it correct?
Thanks!
-- Antonio
Posts: 182
Threads: 21
Joined: Apr 2006
Oh yes Antonio, this is correct on every HP-35, with red-dot or without.
Regards from Sardinia.
Ciao
Ignazio
Posts: 362
Threads: 30
Joined: Jul 2005
The 35 does not have a 10^x key either so the x^y helped there.
I still much prefer the 45 to the 35.
Arnaud
Posts: 1,792
Threads: 62
Joined: Jan 2005
Hi, Antonio --
The topic of the x^y key on the old HP-35 came up several years ago, but I didn't bookmark the thread. It's possible that "x raised to the y" with y residing above x in the stack was the rationale for the convention. However, I believe that the real reason for x^y instead of y^x is absence of a 10^x key, as Arnaud mentioned. 10 x^y will easily compute the antilogarithm of a result.
Especially when "-" computes y-x and "/" computes y/x, y^x is the natural definition.
-- KS