3 ms·

I'm pretty sure it's just 'calculator notation' and not a leak from the computer representation, but rather done because of the limited space available (at leas

• mturmon 4y ago
  I'm doubtful of this claim. My guess is that the 1.234E-8 type notation originates in floating-point input and output on computers. My (c) 1977 version of K&R C explains printf() around page 145, and it supports the %f notation for output of float's as 1.234e-8, etc. This Fortran IV manual (early-mid 1960s, https://www.math-cs.gordon.edu/courses/cs323/FORTRAN/fortran.html https://www.math-cs.gordon.edu/courses/cs323/FORTRAN/fortran...) lists the same exponential notation, but with capital E for REAL's and capital D for double's. This pre-dates the first hand calculator I know of, the early HP's from 1968. These machines used the same notation as the HP-35 pictured below (https://www.hpmuseum.org/rpnvers.htm#num https://www.hpmuseum.org/rpnvers.htm#num). The HP-35 calculator came out in 1972. According to the page below, the scientific notation used is of the form 1.234-8 i.e., without the E (see the second row of the gallery). https://vintagecalc.com/hp-35-red-dot/ https://vintagecalc.com/hp-35-red-dot/ Just a couple of data points.