Looking for a good HP49G tutorial/class

[Trakar]

Mod note-feel free to move this post to a more appropriate location if necessary!

Trying to help a friend learn his way around an HP 49G calculaot, I've never used HP calculators and this one is interestingly different than many of the other graphing calculators I am more familiar with, any tips, hints and directions would be appreciated!

Friend is taking pre-calc next semester and trying to learn the calculator before the class.

 

[Sankaku]

Anything for the HP 50g will work for the 49g as well.

This isn't really a tutorial site, but it worth having in your bookmarks:
http://www.hpcalc.org/

The 49g should be total overkill for precalc. It is essentially equivalent to the TI-89.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-49_series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ti-89

Learning RPN can take a little getting used to, but I love my 50g :-)

 

[Trakar]

Anything for the HP 50g will work for the 49g as well.

This isn't really a tutorial site, but it worth having in your bookmarks:
http://www.hpcalc.org/

The 49g should be total overkill for precalc. It is essentially equivalent to the TI-89.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-49_series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ti-89

Learning RPN can take a little getting used to, but I love my 50g :-)

Yeah, I took these classes back in the mid sixties, calculators were people, not handheld electronics! I'm fairly familiar with the TI family of graphing calculators, but it took me an hour with the owner/operations manual just to figure out how to get the HP to convert decimal degrees into HMS.

The HP looks interesting, my friend picked it up from a relative and was trying to learn how to use it. I traded him a TI-84 for it as there are lots of books and online classes available for teaching how to use it, he's happy, but now I'm trying to muddle my way through the owner's manual. I've found a couple of HP tutorials on their website, but they are far from comprehensive. I'd really like to find a full-fledged class on the use and operations of the calculator, but I guess I'm going to have to advertise around for a private tutor or something.

Thanks for responding, if you think of anything else please don't hesitate to add-in.

 

[Sankaku]

The old joke is often used with the HP: "It makes easy things hard and hard things easy."

It is really a hand-held computer. Learning the conventions HP uses can be a little daunting, but once you are conversant with the machine, it is amazingly versatile. I found that just referencing the pdf manual was enough to get started.

Did you look at the site I linked to? There are lots of things there...
http://www.hpcalc.org/hp49/docs/faq/
http://www.hpcalc.org/hp49/docs/misc/

 

[Trakar]

The old joke is often used with the HP: "It makes easy things hard and hard things easy."

It is really a hand-held computer. Learning the conventions HP uses can be a little daunting, but once you are conversant with the machine, it is amazingly versatile. I found that just referencing the pdf manual was enough to get started.

Did you look at the site I linked to? There are lots of things there...
http://www.hpcalc.org/hp49/docs/faq/
http://www.hpcalc.org/hp49/docs/misc/

Last to first,

Yes, first place I went to was HP, and they provided quite a lot of material for download, including some helpful upgrade programs
(though I'm not anywhere near comfortable enough with the system yet to try and install any upgrades or additional apps - I'm still just trying to figure out all the normal basic scientific calculator functions!)
the link you gave had mostly duplicates of that information, but every little bit helps!
I've also downloaded tip sheets from several places. If you happen to run across any thing else please drop it by here, and if you don't mind, I may put up a few questions as I run into issues beyond my ability to resolve on my own!

Thanks again! another toy to play with!