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Horses for Courses

Horses for courses...

I was thinking this when I packed my things for the summer holiday in Minorca. I had been working hard until Friday afternoon, but I left some things pending for the summer holidays (some financial analysis and the BP for the following year)

I needed to take one or more calculators with me. As many of you, I have a significant collection of calculators, so the choice is not evident at first sight. I have most of the typical calculators in the past or current line-ups - main missing item is 65-67. I hope to fill the gap sometime in the future.

Back to the packing chores. I wanted to learn more in depth the 50g, so there went a manual and the calculator. There are a number of mathematical tools that I wanted to get confident with. The 50g is a very powerful tool for a scholar - either student or professor, but I doubt that an engineer at work uses CAS or most functions at all - despite its value for a math lover. (Does a 50g really have a place in business? Yes, but you need to customise it heavily) Anyway, one for the bag. Just the doubt about taking with me a summer or winter HP50g. Let's be serious and take the winter one.

 

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Then I took my trusty HP15c. Normally is in my jacket pocket. This time I took it with me because I wanted to create a library of programs to add to this -yours- website. You know, you need to be prepared for the rush! But this is not a calculator I'll take with me in shorts, to the beach!

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But then, there was the job I still had to do. +-/*-kind of job, with a lot of A%, %T, %, but little more. Instantaneously, I knew I wanted an HP17bII, and no other calculator. Keyboard feel would not be a factor, but screen contrast would - then I'd take the silver HP17bII+. 

 

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I understand that this may sound like heresy. I know that most of our readers are engineers, and a calculator without all transcendent functions is a hampered machine; but when I wanted to do number crunching in the beach, this is the calculator I wanted to have by me.

Another possibility would have been the 19bII, but its bigger real estate utilisation (and its fragility when my son drops it to the floor) were some points against.

Your mileage may vary - and that's why I said "horses for courses"

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More about: HP 17bII, HP17bII+, hp15c, hp15c reissue, hp50g

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