I miss my pi button!!

[Ken Ratkevich]

I have been an Electronics Technician all my working life and have gotten by with a standard TI scientific calculator. I recently decide to upgrade to an AAS degree in Electronic Engineering Technology. So, I figure I should upgrade my calculator also. I decided to go for a top of the line calculator so naturally I picked HP. I went to HPs' website and they recommended the hp33s as the calculator best suited for engineering applications so I went online and bought one.

So now I'm happy as a clam with my fancy hp33s. But, yesterday I went to solve for the reactance of an inductor using XL=2*pi*f*L and - wait - THERE'S NO pi BUTTON!!!!! Jeez!!

I know I can just enter in 3.14 but it's just not the same as hittng the trusty pi button, especially if you're a stickler for accuracy and detail like I am.

Is the pi button missing on other HP calculators?

Ken

[Frank B. (Germany)]

Is it? Left-Shift Cos?

Frank.

[Antonio Maschio (Italy)]

Well, I'm surprised you couldn't find it. Press the violet shift (right shift!) and COS, and voilà!

-- Antonio

[Ken Ratkevich]

OK!!

I looked right now and found it immediately!

I'm so embarrassed! Forget I even posted this everyone!

That's what I get for doing homework at 2am.

Ken

[hal]

That's quite all right, Ken.

It's a common complaint on this forum that the keyboard layout and colors of the HP33 make it difficult to find things on. In the past, I've spent upwards of 45 seconds trying to find a seldom used keyboard function on my 33S. I will bet however, that you'll never have to search for the PI key again:)
Best regards, Hal

[GE]

And a related question : what are the HP calculators which have a primary (no shifted) PI key ?

The clock is ticking...

[Ron Ross]

Well if you get to use softkeys, I will give you one NOT expected. The Hp17B (any flavor), under math menue.

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

Quote:

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what are the HP calculators which have a primary (no shifted) PI key ?

---

From memory, the HP-35.

[Katie Wasserman]

... and the horrible 30S. Just those two, from a quick look through at my collection. But I don't have some of the more recent ones like the 9G.

[Gene Wright]

Well, my prototype HP-63S has a primary key PI function.

[Walter B]

so does my draft 44S :)

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

Looking in the museum I've found the desktop calculators 9100A and B and the 9810 series. Like the 35 the first doesn't have a shift key anyway. And the latter appears to have both shifted and non-shifted pi keys (?!).

[Katie Wasserman]

Yes indeed (I forgot to look at the big machines) the 9100 does have a un-shifted PI key as does the 9810. The shifted PI key (CHS) is not a function, it indicates that with the Alpha Printer ROM installed the key will print the PI character when used with the FMT FMT special instruction. The un-shifted PI key prints a "P".

[Steve S]

...Ya know, maybe it's just me, but aren't there some things that a person should just know...???

Pi: 3.1415926535.... (I could go on...)

Should a person really have to have a key for that...???

[bill platt]

For most applications, 3.1 is close enough, which is only one press more than shift pi :-)

[Garth Wilson]

Quote:

---

I went to solve for the reactance of an inductor using XL=2*pi*f*L and - wait - THERE'S NO pi BUTTON!!!!! Jeez!!

I know I can just enter in 3.14 but it's just not the same as hittng the trusty pi button, especially if you're a stickler for accuracy and detail like I am.

---

Ummm, where did you find a source for inductors that are always accurate to more than three digits?

[Ken Ratkevich]

OK.

Boy, I really took a beating on this post. This is a tough crowd.

You guys have make a good point. Simple entering 3.14 for pi or 6.28 for 2*pi is more than sufficient in terms of accuracy. But
I'm so used to having the pi button staring me in the face, I got a little disturbed when I couldn't immediately find it on my brand spankin' new HP calculator.

Thanks for all your input.

Ken

[bill platt]

Hey Ken,

Welcome to the tough crowd. It's all in good fun :-)