dent@unocss..unl.edu (Local Submission) (03/10/90)
I've really appreciated the various reviews and discussion of the 48 here; I plan on buying one pretty soon :-) But, I was wondering: can anyone be more specific about what capabilities the 48 has w/r/t fractions? Will it handle them on one line like the new units, or..? What can you do with them? Etc? I have a 28S now, and the lack of fractions really bugs me :-) (I haven't bothered typing in the fractions code posted b/c I have no way to backup the 28 and I get Memory Lost far too frequently...) One thing about the 28S's case.. I dropped mine once, (when it was open), and the battery door broke! So now I have the battery door rubber-banded and taped on, which is obviously a hassle. I was kind of disappointed b/c my 15C I could toss across the room and all that would happen is it might get a dent in the metal on the face. Is the 48 case flimsy too, or can you drop kick the thing like me dad's 33e? :-) Well, I remain an HP fan regardless :-)... once again, thanks for all of the extremely helpful 48 (and 28 of course) info on this list! -/ Dave Caplinger /--------------------------------------------------------- Microcomputer Specialist, Campus Computing, Univ. of Nebraska at Omaha dent@zeus.unomaha.edu ...!uunet!unocss!dent DENT@UNOMA1
Jake-S@cup.portal.com (Jake G Schwartz) (03/12/90)
With regard to fractions, the HP48 has two keys which convert decimals to fractions: ->Q and ->Qpi (pi = the pi symbol). The -> Q key does a direct conversion to an algebraic consisting of the reduced fraction that is a best guesds approximation of the real decimal number. The ->Qpi version does more than that. To quote the manual: "->Qpi is similar to ->Q except that it factors out pi. ->Qpi computes both the fractional equivalent of the original number and the fractional equiv- alent of the original number divided by pi, and then compares the denomina- tors. If the denominator of the fractional equivalent of the original number is smaller, that fractional equivalent is returned to the stack; this is the same result as if you had executed ->Q. If the denominator of the fractional equivalent of the original number divided by pi is smaller, that fractional equivalent, multiplied by pi, is returned to the stack." With this, one can write fractional arithmetic routines and the like, con- verting fractions on the stack which are algebraics by the ->NUM key, doing the math, and then converting back to fractions with the ->Q key. Jake Schwartz
alonzo@microsoft.UUCP (Alonzo GARIEPY) (03/14/90)
In article <2461@unocss..unl.edu> dent@unocss..unl.edu (Local Submission) writes: > I've really appreciated the various reviews and discussion of the 48 here; > I plan on buying one pretty soon :-) But, I was wondering: can anyone be > more specific about what capabilities the 48 has w/r/t fractions? Will it > handle them on one line like the new units, or..? What can you do with them? > Etc? You can use fractions on the 48 in the following way: Put fractions on the stack: '1+3/4' '2+5/8' Press the + key: '1+3/4+(2+5/8)' Press the EVAL key: 4.375 Press the ->Q key: '35/8' Alternatively if the -3 flag (numerical results) is set: Put fractions on the stack: '1+3/4' '2+5/8' Press the + key: 4.375 Press the ->Q key: '35/8' Or, you can just use algebra: Type '1+3/4 + 2 + 5/8' into the command line Press EVAL and then ->Q in addition, there is a ->Qpi function that works like ->Q except that it looks for a factor of pi and gives you decent fractional radians (or anything else that has a factor of pi). The word pi in the previous sentence actually means the greek letter of that name. alonzo