Much to my dismay, several years ago I had to bid farewell to my 48SX calculator as it bit the dust - nothing would resurrect it. Some time later, I decided to purchase a new calculator and ended up buying the 49 g+, as the 48SX was not available (at least, not affordably at the time). Until today, the calculator was a paperweight but I decided today to use it to do some quick and easy unit conversions. Ha! As if! I must say, based on my experience with it when I first purchased it and my experience today, that I detest the HP 49g+. With the 48SX, unit conversion was so simple that even though my calculator broke years ago I still remember that it was an easy process.
Since the conversion wasn’t intuitively obvious with this 49 g+, I looked online for assistance. I found some in archives from this site.
One method posted: 1: press right-shift than units. Press next and choose mass,F1. 2: press Kg,F1. The beep sounds and the box 'Error Too Few Arguments' appears on the screen. Just press on/cancel and the box disappears, leaving 1._kg on the stack. 3: press left-shift,then choose g from the menu,F2. Kg is now converted to grams
Here’s another: 1 right shift minus to place an underline after the one, (press * on 48) right shift 6 to access the units menu f6 for speed units, (press e on 48) f6 again, to place knot after 1_, (press f on 48) ENTER left shift mpg to convert to mph
The problem is that when I press left shift I get NO menu. None. What the heck? With the 48SX, I was able to select the units I wanted converted from and then select (in the “menu” across the bottom of the screen) the units I wanted it converted TO without complicated keystrokes or voodoo.
Don’t get me started on the online user’s guide; it’s a joke regarding what I need from it.
So here’s the gist: I want to convert several data points from psi to MPa or vice versa. Let’s say I want to convert 18,500 psi to MPa. It appears I’ll have to convert to Pa and then just take it to MPa from there - no problem. It’s getting from psi to Pa that is the problem.
So I start: 18500 right shift 6, 11, ok, 4, ok (yields 18500_psi in stack)
Now based on what I’ve read before, left (green) shift should give me a menu, right? WRONG!
So, how DO I convert from psi to Pa, short of pulling out my pad and pencil and books and do it manually? After all, that’s why I bought the blasted calculator - to save some time and effort, not add to it!