Exploring the Use of Polish/Reverse Polish Notation

[Nidum]

This thread follows on from : https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...ot-worthy-of-maths-forum.880724/#post-5534559 .

Anybody ever used Polish notation or reverse Polish notation for computational formulae ? Use of either is supposed to eliminate ambiguity and make the flow of computations logical .

I only ask out of curiosity . The very expensive HP programmable calculator we had at Mtu during the late 1970's had reverse Polish notation input . That is the only real world use I have ever come across .

 

[Kevin McHugh]

I still have the HP 11C I bought in college in 1982. It still works great, and you got to love RPN.

 

[NascentOxygen]

RPN is a tool of trade of the serious number crunching scientist. I'm sure there would be plenty of apps featuring a RPN calculator for whatever tablet you own. The RPN calculator keypad doesn't need an equals sign nor parentheses, i.e., "(" and ")".

To evaluate 6 × (7 - 2 ÷ 3) + 5 you would typically enter the keystrokes in this order:
6 7 2 3 ÷ - × 5 +

Maybe you can see why this is also known as post-fix notation?

If you have access to linux, you'll find that the utility known as "dc" is a commandline RPN calculator. (It is also of unlimited precision, meaning you can set it to give you an answer to thousands of sig figs.)

 

[NTW]

You can still find the HP35s, and another model, I don't remember the name now, for financial calculations.
Besides, and for nostalgics, you have the 'SwissMicros': https://www.swissmicros.com/
To my knowledge, there are no other brands of RPN calculators. Well, perhaps in Russia... In Soviet times, there used to be a few models...

 

[fresh_42]

You can still find the HP35s, and another model, I don't remember the name now, for financial calculations.
Besides, and for nostalgics, you have the 'SwissMicros': https://www.swissmicros.com/
To my knowledge, there are no other brands of RPN calculators. Well, perhaps in Russia... In Soviet times, there used to be a few models...

I think TI calculators used it, too, as far as I remember. And it's useful to know, when it comes to pushdown automatons.

 

[berkeman]

The very expensive HP programmable calculator

Now available for free on your smartphone...

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/hp42-calculator-on-your-smartphone.871642/

 

[Ben Niehoff]

I still own an HP 49-G that uses RPN. I never use it anymore, though, since I have Mathematica on my laptop

 

[Kevin McHugh]

I think TI calculators used it, too, as far as I remember. And it's useful to know, when it comes to pushdown automatons.

Before I bought my first HP11C in 1982, I used TI calculators. They were not RPN. Maybe they changed over the years.

 

[Kevin McHugh]

You can still find the HP35s, and another model, I don't remember the name now, for financial calculations.
Besides, and for nostalgics, you have the 'SwissMicros': https://www.swissmicros.com/
To my knowledge, there are no other brands of RPN calculators. Well, perhaps in Russia... In Soviet times, there used to be a few models...

That would be the HP 12C, I had one of those too when I was in the MBA program.

 

[Nidum]

Thanks to all for replies .

The programmable calculator at Mtu was a HP97 .

http://www.hpmuseum.org/3qs/973q.jpg

I later did some work using a HP 9845 desk top computer .

http://www.hp9845.net/9845/hardware/9845a/images/9845A.jpg

 

[Kevin McHugh]

Thanks to all for replies .

The programmable calculator at Mtu was a HP97 .

http://www.hpmuseum.org/3qs/973q.jpg

I later did some work using a HP 9845 desk top computer .

http://www.hp9845.net/9845/hardware/9845a/images/9845A.jpg

The keypad on that thing looks very similar to the 11C. The 11C is just more compact and it doesn't print.

 

[Nidum]

11C

http://www.hpmuseum.org/3qs/11c3q.jpg

 

[EnumaElish]

Begin off-topic

Casio and Sharp had basic-programmable calculators.

End off-topic