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Ask HN: Do you use a physical calculator in your day job, and why?

Talking to my kids this morning and wondered something strange. Do adults ever use calculators and not computers for their day job? If yes why, and why does it make sense to use a physical calculator for that and not an app or computer?

groffee 4y ago
I'm (re)learning math and use a physical calculator. I'm not really sure why though, I think it's psychological? My computer or phone could do it all just as easily.
- mhh__ 4y ago
  They can just as easily, just worse. The UIs are awful.
- portpecos 4y ago
  I’m also in school. I found desmos.com/scientific to be much easier for my school work, especially for general chemistry. It’s because of the copy/paste function and the history buffer. Long problems require a lot of conversions of molar masses. Class work is a combination of book work and some auto-graded online application. The molar masses for the online application have more decimal places, so it messes up the sig figs if I use the book’s molar masses. So Desmos, helped by letting me copy the molar mass from the online chem application. I can’t imagine tapping 7 digits of several molar masses into a physical calculator. I wished Desmos would release an app though.
Tabular-Iceberg 4y ago
On-screen and phone calculators seem hell-bent on replicating all the worst aspects of the absolute worst physical calculators on the market. Why would anyone want to use that? I could of course get a more advanced calculator app, or use Maxima, but I already own a decent bitmap display calculator with scrollable history that I used in school, so using that is simply the path of least resistance.
- orev 4y ago
  One of my favorites is SpeQ Mathematics (Windows) [1]. It’s free (not OSS) and doesn’t seem to be active anymore, but it still works great. It’s like a scratchpad that can calculate, without trying to emulate a physical device. [1] https://speqmath.com/ https://speqmath.com/
  - Tabular-Iceberg 4y ago
    Thanks for for the tip, but does it bring anything to the table that Maxima can’t already do? Maxima can do things my physical calculator can’t do, like solving equations, at the expense of having to open or switch to it, as opposed to having it always ready on my desk. But to warrant actually downloading, installing and learning a whole other application that application would need to have some pretty game-changing additional features over Maxima, and even if it does, my current needs I’m barely scratching the surface of what Maxima can do, so I would still have very little incentive to switch.
- warmwaffles 4y ago
  For linux I use http://www.speedcrunch.org http://www.speedcrunch.org it's fast and simple for most things I need.
- PopAlongKid 4y ago
  Moffsoft Freecalc works great, especially since you can copy and paste the "tape" results. http://www.moffsoft.com/ http://www.moffsoft.com/
2000UltraDeluxe 4y ago
I've got one lying on the desk, next to my pencil and notebook. It's generally faster and less distracting to grab the calculator and write a note by hand, than to it is to change focus, bring up a calculator, and then write something in a comment/text document.
kergonath 4y ago
I do. Well, I do use both. I tend to use either a command-line calculator (to minimise context switching, for simple calculations) or a physical TI calculator for simple matrix calculations, CAS features such as analytical derivatives simple integration, and dimension analysis (which is vital in my corner of Physics and very rarely done properly in software calculators).
- Calamitous 4y ago
  Interesting, what command line calculator do you use?
  - kergonath 4y ago
    Insect: https://github.com/sharkdp/insect https://github.com/sharkdp/insect It is a bit slow but has decent features, including some physical units support. I set up Tilda (or another Guake equivalent; I tried a bunch of them and can’t remember on which I settled in the end) to run it automatically when a terminal is opened, when pressing Scroll Lock. It’s quite neat: when I need to do a quick calculation, I just hit Scroll Lock, which spawns a drop down terminal with the focus; then type whatever I want to calculate; then control-D to dismiss the drop down terminal and I am back in whatever I was doing without moving either hand off the keyboard. I do more or less the same thing on my Mac with Alfred.
fn-mote 4y ago
A while ago I started using the Emacs calculator ("calc") instead of a phone or TI-84/NSpire/whatever was available. I found an absolutely astounding difference in ergonomics. I don't know if you want to call this a "calculator" or not, but wow... On another front, I use a physical calculator when baking. There's no worry about keeping it clean (ha), and hands that are wet or covered with flour do not have any problem unlocking it and getting presses on the screen to register.
MafellUser 4y ago
I would be LOST without my HP 12C. The reverse Polish input makes sense to me.
- stevesimmons 4y ago
  I use an HP12C app on my phone. Almost all the advantages of the real HP12C, without the need to carry one around.
Havoc 4y ago
No, even for a traditionally calculator heavy job like accounting it is no longer necessary. Most of the time I'm not dealing with a number but lots of them anyway so excel is just better both practically and as a mental model
charlescooper 4y ago
I am an accountant and no I never use a physical calculator other than when studying for the CPA exam as one is permitted in the test room. I spend a lot of time in excel and if I need a quick calculation I do it in a cell to the side. This is often quicker because the figures are often in the workbook already. If I don’t have excel open, I will use the calculator app if I’m doing a quick check calc using some figures from a PDF, email, etc. However even this is remarkably faster than picking up a physical calculator let alone having to carry something with me. Although some of the partners at the firm still use physical calculators, the overwhelming majority of people I work with do not use a physical calculator.
lexa1979 4y ago
Pharmaceutical laboratory here: my colleagues, lab technicians, almost all have a scientific calculator on their desk and they use it quite often. The reason is they know exactly how to use it and when they're filling their paper lab notebook, it's in easy reach and faster than put the notebook away, unlock the computer, learn how to use the computer, then get back to the notebook and write the result.
PopAlongKid 4y ago
It's hard to beat the built-in calculator functionality found in some accounting software. For example, in Quickbooks, in any numeric input field, you can type a number and then an operator (like +, / etc) and it automatically shifts into calculator mode right there in the input field, with the result pasted automatically into the field. Similarly, my income tax software pops up a built-in calculator upon pressing a function key, and the result is automatically pasted back when done.
lazyweb 4y ago
Not me, but in a previous job the interim office manager used a physical calculator to add up columns from an excel sheet she was working on with her computer. I gave her a quick intro into SUM & co. Unsurprisingly, those tasks took a lot less time after that!
Marsymars 4y ago
Not for my day job (my job doesn’t involve many calculations that are simple enough to do on a standard calculator), but I have one on my home office desk that I use all the time for personal things. (It’s much nicer to use than calculator apps.)
marcelluspye 4y ago
My father still has his an HP-41CX he was given for his HS graduation in the early 80s, which he had restored about a decade ago. He uses it mainly, but not exclusively, when he wants to show it off.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
camtarn 4y ago
I recently got really fed up with Windows calculator and bought a scientific calculator. I do a lot of conversions to/from hex during tasks where I have a lot of windows onscreen, so the thought of having effectively an extra screen, a dedicated keyboard that didn't require me to change window focus, and better ergonomics was very appealing. Honestly I'm not using it all that much, despite trying to train myself to use it every time I need to calculate something. The well-rehearsed muscle memory of 'win+R, calc, enter' is kinda hard to beat. And the ergonomics aren't as good as I'd hoped - converting to/from hex and entering hex numbers involves more use of shift and alpha-shift keys than I had expected.
- abakker 4y ago
  I don't know if this solves your issue, but google does this very effectively from search. just type, "[some number] in hex" it just does it very easily.
ivan1783 4y ago
When I'm doing manual machining at the lathe or mill I will use an actual calculator rather than smearing my phone with greasy fingers.
wilsonnb3 4y ago
Yeah I just like the clicky buttons, plus the nostalgia (TI-BASIC was my introduction to programming) It's a TI-86 that I bought on ebay in college because they were cheaper than the 83, 84, and 89.
BenjiWiebe 4y ago
I use a calculator at work sometimes. Say I'm on the phone with a customer, looking up a part for their lawnmower, and I need to apply markup on the dealer price I see on the screen. It's quicker for me to one handed type on the large physical calculator that's stored right beside the computer than to open a calculator on the computer and the computer one might even cover up the numbers I need to see on the screen.
JaceLightning 4y ago
No: I never use a calculator and never need to do calculations. If I do, I use Google Sheets or Google search. Just doing a Google search with an equation is generally enough.
dharmab 4y ago
Not for work, but I have a calculator I sometimes use for navigation in my flight simulator (e.g. coordinate format conversion when flying historical aircraft without digital computers)
donatj 4y ago
I use a TI-89 I’ve used since high school 20 years ago a couple times a week. Mostly to simplify equations or rewrite multi-variable equations to solve for a particular variable. I could do it by hand but why bother and why introduce human error. I’ve never found a tool that made that sort of symbolic math simpler. I have TI-92 but I find the larger form factor cumbersome and without benefit. I use a TI-89 emulator on my phone as well… I just know my way around it and how to do everything I need to.
sgwizdak 4y ago
I still use my HP-32sii [and more recently, the remake, the HP-35] for dev work. I use it mostly for calculations involving hexadecimal values when I'm in a debugging session.
mikewarot 4y ago
When I was making gears, a pen and paper, and a $11 Casio science calculator were the main things I used to figure out angles, etc. It had a nice DMS (Degree Minute Second) conversion mode. You write down your calculations and keep them with the work, as you're working on multiple jobs at the same time, and it helps keep things straight. There's grease and oil everywhere, stuff tends to disappear or get forgotten, so a low budget knowledge base works best. It's amazing how much stuff you can get done with such a cheap calculator.
hansvm 4y ago
I'm usually next to a computer when I need those sorts of results. The calculator keyboard button is mapped to a wrapper around a python repl with a bunch of tools pre-imported, and that's generally faster and easier than a calculator would have been. In the field though, phone calculators are still kind of bad. They're a nice blend of being clunky to do anything fancy while simultaneously not supporting almost any features. If anyone has any recommendations for better apps I'm all ears, but if I were doing stuff away from my desk more often I'd want a real calculator.
- cupofpython 4y ago
  for mobile, i find it easier to have 2 calculators. One bare bones for "i just need to add a bunch of numbers" and one for "i need to use parenthesis and division" for the latter i use maple calculator on android
- I_complete_me 4y ago
  HiPER Calc Pro on Android meets all my needs and I can recommend it.
- qwezxcrty 4y ago
  You can try emulators of some physical calculators on the phone. Most of the calculators they are emulating are quite polished to allow you do the kind of advanced math easily. My personal choice: HP Prime. Emu48 also works nicely.
taylodl 4y ago
I actually use Spotlight a lot for my simple calculator needs
warrenm 4y ago
I use a physical calculator for two reasons: - actual (not simulated) haptic/tactile feedback - I don't want to pull out my phone/laptop to do the non-trivial math I also do mental math, making sure that what I'm calculating is in the right ballpark
qwezxcrty 4y ago
As a physicist working in offices, labs and cleanrooms, I have a HP Prime calculator but I almost always use it's Android emulator instead. It's an handy calculator so it's emulator is also handy, plus I don't need to carry another phone sized device with me.
arduinomancer 4y ago
I’m a graphics programmer and I use a physical one fairly often while debugging shaders With rendering code I find a lot of the time you have to draw it out on paper to understand what it is doing/how it works Typically simple calculations involving trig/vectors I find it easier to have a physical one rather than flipping back and forth between paper/computer
elbo_ 4y ago
I make medications in a compounding Pharmacy so I regularly need to calculate weights and volumes and account for slight differences in the potency of bulk drugs.
tmaly 4y ago
I still have my TI-85 from high school. I have not used it in years though.
Ninjaneered 4y ago
I love my TI-89. Now Wolfram Alpha makes some/most things easier, but I still have a sweet spot for my TI. I still have my physical calculator in my desk drawer, but I also have 2 emulators for my phone [1] and my computer [2]. I think both require you to extract the ROM from your physical calculator, but either way, it's worth it if you love your TI! [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Bisha.TI89EmuDonation https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Bisha.TI89... [2] https://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/84/8442.html https://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/84/8442.html
apricot 4y ago
Yes, an HP-32SII RPN calculator. I teach math and sometimes have to do some calculations while lecturing. My fingers know how to do RPN by themselves, so I can use the calculator blind while continuing to speak. This can be a good trick to impress students. (They would be much less impressed if they ever saw me try to use a non-RPN calculator and fail at simple things.) The calculator also comes in handy for tallying marks on exams, and it's much more pleasant to use than a calculator app on the computer. I do have Free42 installed everywhere but I don't use it that much.
WheelsAtLarge 4y ago
yes, a calculator is just easier to use. I can move it around without much thought. It's always available. I like the sensation of making sure the key was completely pressed. Over all, I deal with less errors. Computers have their place but so do simple calculators. And they are cheap! I recently found my TI graphing calculator. I pushed the on button and it started. It's a killer calculator. I can graph, do statistics, it can be programmed and it's mostly useless to me now. A bit of a bummer :(.
fd111 4y ago
For many decades I've kept an HP calculator on my desk within easy reach. I use it regularly for one thing or another. (day job: programmer) Due to force of habit, my physical calculator is easier and faster to use than on-screen calculators. Not unlike Emacs commands, the calculator interface is burned into muscle memory: my fingers know how to use it more than my brain does. I use an emulator app on my phone when not at my desk, but it's always unsatisfying. Real calculator buttons give me some kind of brain-stem level of satisfaction that a functionally identical phone app can't match.
otter-rock 4y ago
I sometimes use a calculator at work when sketching and estimating an idea, and when checking my detailed work. It's an extra layer of defense against a mistake, but I never rely on it.

groffee 4y ago

I'm (re)learning math and use a physical calculator. I'm not really sure why though, I think it's psychological? My computer or phone could do it all just as easily.

mhh__ 4y ago
They can just as easily, just worse. The UIs are awful.
portpecos 4y ago
I’m also in school. I found desmos.com/scientific to be much easier for my school work, especially for general chemistry. It’s because of the copy/paste function and the history buffer. Long problems require a lot of conversions of molar masses. Class work is a combination of book work and some auto-graded online application. The molar masses for the online application have more decimal places, so it messes up the sig figs if I use the book’s molar masses. So Desmos, helped by letting me copy the molar mass from the online chem application. I can’t imagine tapping 7 digits of several molar masses into a physical calculator. I wished Desmos would release an app though.

Tabular-Iceberg 4y ago

On-screen and phone calculators seem hell-bent on replicating all the worst aspects of the absolute worst physical calculators on the market. Why would anyone want to use that? I could of course get a more advanced calculator app, or use Maxima, but I already own a decent bitmap display calculator with scrollable history that I used in school, so using that is simply the path of least resistance.

orev 4y ago
One of my favorites is SpeQ Mathematics (Windows) [1]. It’s free (not OSS) and doesn’t seem to be active anymore, but it still works great. It’s like a scratchpad that can calculate, without trying to emulate a physical device. [1] https://speqmath.com/ https://speqmath.com/
- Tabular-Iceberg 4y ago
  Thanks for for the tip, but does it bring anything to the table that Maxima can’t already do? Maxima can do things my physical calculator can’t do, like solving equations, at the expense of having to open or switch to it, as opposed to having it always ready on my desk. But to warrant actually downloading, installing and learning a whole other application that application would need to have some pretty game-changing additional features over Maxima, and even if it does, my current needs I’m barely scratching the surface of what Maxima can do, so I would still have very little incentive to switch.
warmwaffles 4y ago
For linux I use http://www.speedcrunch.org http://www.speedcrunch.org it's fast and simple for most things I need.
PopAlongKid 4y ago
Moffsoft Freecalc works great, especially since you can copy and paste the "tape" results. http://www.moffsoft.com/ http://www.moffsoft.com/

2000UltraDeluxe 4y ago

I've got one lying on the desk, next to my pencil and notebook. It's generally faster and less distracting to grab the calculator and write a note by hand, than to it is to change focus, bring up a calculator, and then write something in a comment/text document.

kergonath 4y ago

I do. Well, I do use both. I tend to use either a command-line calculator (to minimise context switching, for simple calculations) or a physical TI calculator for simple matrix calculations, CAS features such as analytical derivatives simple integration, and dimension analysis (which is vital in my corner of Physics and very rarely done properly in software calculators).

Calamitous 4y ago
Interesting, what command line calculator do you use?
- kergonath 4y ago
  Insect: https://github.com/sharkdp/insect https://github.com/sharkdp/insect It is a bit slow but has decent features, including some physical units support. I set up Tilda (or another Guake equivalent; I tried a bunch of them and can’t remember on which I settled in the end) to run it automatically when a terminal is opened, when pressing Scroll Lock. It’s quite neat: when I need to do a quick calculation, I just hit Scroll Lock, which spawns a drop down terminal with the focus; then type whatever I want to calculate; then control-D to dismiss the drop down terminal and I am back in whatever I was doing without moving either hand off the keyboard. I do more or less the same thing on my Mac with Alfred.

fn-mote 4y ago

A while ago I started using the Emacs calculator ("calc") instead of a phone or TI-84/NSpire/whatever was available. I found an absolutely astounding difference in ergonomics. I don't know if you want to call this a "calculator" or not, but wow... On another front, I use a physical calculator when baking. There's no worry about keeping it clean (ha), and hands that are wet or covered with flour do not have any problem unlocking it and getting presses on the screen to register.

MafellUser 4y ago

I would be LOST without my HP 12C. The reverse Polish input makes sense to me.

stevesimmons 4y ago
I use an HP12C app on my phone. Almost all the advantages of the real HP12C, without the need to carry one around.

Havoc 4y ago

No, even for a traditionally calculator heavy job like accounting it is no longer necessary. Most of the time I'm not dealing with a number but lots of them anyway so excel is just better both practically and as a mental model

charlescooper 4y ago

I am an accountant and no I never use a physical calculator other than when studying for the CPA exam as one is permitted in the test room. I spend a lot of time in excel and if I need a quick calculation I do it in a cell to the side. This is often quicker because the figures are often in the workbook already. If I don’t have excel open, I will use the calculator app if I’m doing a quick check calc using some figures from a PDF, email, etc. However even this is remarkably faster than picking up a physical calculator let alone having to carry something with me. Although some of the partners at the firm still use physical calculators, the overwhelming majority of people I work with do not use a physical calculator.

lexa1979 4y ago

Pharmaceutical laboratory here: my colleagues, lab technicians, almost all have a scientific calculator on their desk and they use it quite often. The reason is they know exactly how to use it and when they're filling their paper lab notebook, it's in easy reach and faster than put the notebook away, unlock the computer, learn how to use the computer, then get back to the notebook and write the result.

PopAlongKid 4y ago

It's hard to beat the built-in calculator functionality found in some accounting software. For example, in Quickbooks, in any numeric input field, you can type a number and then an operator (like +, / etc) and it automatically shifts into calculator mode right there in the input field, with the result pasted automatically into the field. Similarly, my income tax software pops up a built-in calculator upon pressing a function key, and the result is automatically pasted back when done.

lazyweb 4y ago

Not me, but in a previous job the interim office manager used a physical calculator to add up columns from an excel sheet she was working on with her computer. I gave her a quick intro into SUM & co. Unsurprisingly, those tasks took a lot less time after that!

Marsymars 4y ago

Not for my day job (my job doesn’t involve many calculations that are simple enough to do on a standard calculator), but I have one on my home office desk that I use all the time for personal things. (It’s much nicer to use than calculator apps.)

marcelluspye 4y ago

My father still has his an HP-41CX he was given for his HS graduation in the early 80s, which he had restored about a decade ago. He uses it mainly, but not exclusively, when he wants to show it off.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

camtarn 4y ago

I recently got really fed up with Windows calculator and bought a scientific calculator. I do a lot of conversions to/from hex during tasks where I have a lot of windows onscreen, so the thought of having effectively an extra screen, a dedicated keyboard that didn't require me to change window focus, and better ergonomics was very appealing. Honestly I'm not using it all that much, despite trying to train myself to use it every time I need to calculate something. The well-rehearsed muscle memory of 'win+R, calc, enter' is kinda hard to beat. And the ergonomics aren't as good as I'd hoped - converting to/from hex and entering hex numbers involves more use of shift and alpha-shift keys than I had expected.

abakker 4y ago
I don't know if this solves your issue, but google does this very effectively from search. just type, "[some number] in hex" it just does it very easily.

ivan1783 4y ago

When I'm doing manual machining at the lathe or mill I will use an actual calculator rather than smearing my phone with greasy fingers.

wilsonnb3 4y ago

Yeah I just like the clicky buttons, plus the nostalgia (TI-BASIC was my introduction to programming) It's a TI-86 that I bought on ebay in college because they were cheaper than the 83, 84, and 89.

BenjiWiebe 4y ago

I use a calculator at work sometimes. Say I'm on the phone with a customer, looking up a part for their lawnmower, and I need to apply markup on the dealer price I see on the screen. It's quicker for me to one handed type on the large physical calculator that's stored right beside the computer than to open a calculator on the computer and the computer one might even cover up the numbers I need to see on the screen.

JaceLightning 4y ago

No: I never use a calculator and never need to do calculations. If I do, I use Google Sheets or Google search. Just doing a Google search with an equation is generally enough.

dharmab 4y ago

Not for work, but I have a calculator I sometimes use for navigation in my flight simulator (e.g. coordinate format conversion when flying historical aircraft without digital computers)

donatj 4y ago

I use a TI-89 I’ve used since high school 20 years ago a couple times a week. Mostly to simplify equations or rewrite multi-variable equations to solve for a particular variable. I could do it by hand but why bother and why introduce human error. I’ve never found a tool that made that sort of symbolic math simpler. I have TI-92 but I find the larger form factor cumbersome and without benefit. I use a TI-89 emulator on my phone as well… I just know my way around it and how to do everything I need to.

sgwizdak 4y ago

I still use my HP-32sii [and more recently, the remake, the HP-35] for dev work. I use it mostly for calculations involving hexadecimal values when I'm in a debugging session.

mikewarot 4y ago

When I was making gears, a pen and paper, and a $11 Casio science calculator were the main things I used to figure out angles, etc. It had a nice DMS (Degree Minute Second) conversion mode. You write down your calculations and keep them with the work, as you're working on multiple jobs at the same time, and it helps keep things straight. There's grease and oil everywhere, stuff tends to disappear or get forgotten, so a low budget knowledge base works best. It's amazing how much stuff you can get done with such a cheap calculator.

hansvm 4y ago

I'm usually next to a computer when I need those sorts of results. The calculator keyboard button is mapped to a wrapper around a python repl with a bunch of tools pre-imported, and that's generally faster and easier than a calculator would have been. In the field though, phone calculators are still kind of bad. They're a nice blend of being clunky to do anything fancy while simultaneously not supporting almost any features. If anyone has any recommendations for better apps I'm all ears, but if I were doing stuff away from my desk more often I'd want a real calculator.

cupofpython 4y ago
for mobile, i find it easier to have 2 calculators. One bare bones for "i just need to add a bunch of numbers" and one for "i need to use parenthesis and division" for the latter i use maple calculator on android
I_complete_me 4y ago
HiPER Calc Pro on Android meets all my needs and I can recommend it.
qwezxcrty 4y ago
You can try emulators of some physical calculators on the phone. Most of the calculators they are emulating are quite polished to allow you do the kind of advanced math easily. My personal choice: HP Prime. Emu48 also works nicely.

taylodl 4y ago

I actually use Spotlight a lot for my simple calculator needs

warrenm 4y ago

I use a physical calculator for two reasons: - actual (not simulated) haptic/tactile feedback - I don't want to pull out my phone/laptop to do the non-trivial math I also do mental math, making sure that what I'm calculating is in the right ballpark

qwezxcrty 4y ago

As a physicist working in offices, labs and cleanrooms, I have a HP Prime calculator but I almost always use it's Android emulator instead. It's an handy calculator so it's emulator is also handy, plus I don't need to carry another phone sized device with me.

arduinomancer 4y ago

I’m a graphics programmer and I use a physical one fairly often while debugging shaders With rendering code I find a lot of the time you have to draw it out on paper to understand what it is doing/how it works Typically simple calculations involving trig/vectors I find it easier to have a physical one rather than flipping back and forth between paper/computer

elbo_ 4y ago

I make medications in a compounding Pharmacy so I regularly need to calculate weights and volumes and account for slight differences in the potency of bulk drugs.

tmaly 4y ago

I still have my TI-85 from high school. I have not used it in years though.

Ninjaneered 4y ago

I love my TI-89. Now Wolfram Alpha makes some/most things easier, but I still have a sweet spot for my TI. I still have my physical calculator in my desk drawer, but I also have 2 emulators for my phone [1] and my computer [2]. I think both require you to extract the ROM from your physical calculator, but either way, it's worth it if you love your TI! [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Bisha.TI89EmuDonation https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Bisha.TI89... [2] https://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/84/8442.html https://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/84/8442.html

apricot 4y ago

Yes, an HP-32SII RPN calculator. I teach math and sometimes have to do some calculations while lecturing. My fingers know how to do RPN by themselves, so I can use the calculator blind while continuing to speak. This can be a good trick to impress students. (They would be much less impressed if they ever saw me try to use a non-RPN calculator and fail at simple things.) The calculator also comes in handy for tallying marks on exams, and it's much more pleasant to use than a calculator app on the computer. I do have Free42 installed everywhere but I don't use it that much.

WheelsAtLarge 4y ago

yes, a calculator is just easier to use. I can move it around without much thought. It's always available. I like the sensation of making sure the key was completely pressed. Over all, I deal with less errors. Computers have their place but so do simple calculators. And they are cheap! I recently found my TI graphing calculator. I pushed the on button and it started. It's a killer calculator. I can graph, do statistics, it can be programmed and it's mostly useless to me now. A bit of a bummer :(.

fd111 4y ago

For many decades I've kept an HP calculator on my desk within easy reach. I use it regularly for one thing or another. (day job: programmer) Due to force of habit, my physical calculator is easier and faster to use than on-screen calculators. Not unlike Emacs commands, the calculator interface is burned into muscle memory: my fingers know how to use it more than my brain does. I use an emulator app on my phone when not at my desk, but it's always unsatisfying. Real calculator buttons give me some kind of brain-stem level of satisfaction that a functionally identical phone app can't match.

otter-rock 4y ago

I sometimes use a calculator at work when sketching and estimating an idea, and when checking my detailed work. It's an extra layer of defense against a mistake, but I never rely on it.