HP-12C stunt-scientific?
#1

Hi all,

Since I can still find new 'gold' 12c's but need a scientific...and considering that sin/cos/tan plus inverses are a must for me, would anyone consider trying to make do with a 12c with trig approximators? Would it leave any room for a short program in addition?

I assume no one would recommend the platinum despite its greater memory, right? I am looking for the good old 15 years of service potential, and the 12c seems the only candidate aside from buying someone's off of ebay. (while being aware that I'd never know what environment it had been exposed to)

Thoughts?
Eric

#2

The 12c is no better than the newer 12c platinum, since they both come from the same plant, unless you buy older merchandise. But then, why not buy the Hp 17BII. Much more ram and faster. If you can wait, the new Hp33s will be available in another month or so.

If I were pressed to buy an RPN scientific and $$$$ were an issue, I would buy a 48G. They are cheap ($40 or so, ebay), well made, and have all the functions (maybe to many). My only gripe is that it WONT fit in a pocket, like it should. The Hp28s series sells for a bit more and size wise, a bit less. But the battery door is a soft spot and the clamshell case isn't as tough as any other Hp calculator. It really needs a desk to be used properly.

Your best solution would be an Hp11c, as these are usually available and will give you a great all around calculator that will hold up better than any of the new Hp12c's you will find retail. Cost is usually less than $150 (and occasionally sell for about $100, far better buy than a 12c).

#3

Victor wrote this program http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/articles.cgi?read=225 that gives you all the trig functions and their inverses on a 12C. Very compact, with good accuracy but it does take up most of memory. On the 12C Platinum you'd have plenty of room for other programs.

#4

Eric posted:

"Since I can still find new 'gold' 12c's but need a scientific...and considering that sin/cos/tan plus inverses are a must for me, would anyone consider trying to make do with a 12c with trig approximators?"


Yes, certainly. Please have a look at this article published in Datafile,
HP-12C Tried & Tricky Trigonometrics, where I discuss at length exactly the topic you're considering. The article enters into fine details about how to implement quality trigonometrics on the 12C (i.e: fast, accurate, full range, and complete, not run-of-the-mill, mediocrely programmed Taylor expansions) and includes a program which meets and exceeds said requirements, with plenty of interesting examples and performance tables.

"Would it leave any room for a short program in addition?"

It depends. For the classic HP-12C, the program uses all 99 steps to implement all 6 trigonometric functions (sin, cos, tan and their inverses), but if you don't need some of them, you can save some steps. On the other hand, the program will run in the 12C Platinum with a lot of room to spare, at least 124 extra steps before the GOTO bug creeps in. :-)

Best regards from V.



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