« previous next »
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.  (Read 4061 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Online Weird Tolkienish Figure

  • Technical
  • *****
  • Posts: 18,163
February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« on: February 01, 2017, 11:23:08 am »
Logged

Oceander

  • Guest
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2017, 12:06:20 pm »
What's $395 in today's money?  My guess is it's at least $700 if not more. 
Logged

Online Weird Tolkienish Figure

  • Technical
  • *****
  • Posts: 18,163
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2017, 12:16:19 pm »
Quote from: Oceander on February 01, 2017, 12:06:20 pm
What's $395 in today's money?  My guess is it's at least $700 if not more.


According to this it's over 2 grand:


http://www.carinsurancedata.org/calculators/inflation/395/1972
Logged

Online Lando Lincoln

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15,523
  • Gender: Male
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2017, 12:24:22 pm »
I bought a TI-SR11 at about the same time for $179.  Big, BIG decision.  It was not nearly as powerful as the HP - it had pi, square root, reciprocal, exponent, and a constant function.  It was touted as a slide rule calculator.  I hated the HP during an exam.  Their buttons clicked and being surrounded by the "click-click-click" was very distracting.

Logged
There are some among us who live in rooms of experience we can never enter.
John Steinbeck

Offline Forum member

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 143
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2017, 12:42:17 pm »
Quote from: Weird Tolkienish Figure on February 01, 2017, 11:23:08 am
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-35



My dad was running a manufacturing plant and bought one for the whole front office to share. Maybe 4 years later, we were at a checkout and he noticed the same calculator in a bubble pack for about $12.
Logged

Offline guitar4jesus

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,217
  • Gender: Male
  • Yup...
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2017, 12:59:35 pm »
Quote from: Oceander on February 01, 2017, 12:06:20 pm
What's $395 in today's money?  My guess is it's at least $700 if not more.

$2135.20  Wow!
Logged

Oceander

  • Guest
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2017, 01:45:23 pm »
Quote from: Scutter on February 01, 2017, 01:04:05 pm
Very cool. I have always loved HP calculators. Always regretted that I sold the venerable HP 15c that I used in college. About a year ago I replaced it with one off of eBay. Had to do a little work to it to fix some sticking keys, but now it's almost as good as new.


You sold a 15c!!!!!!  At least you atoned for that blasphemy by rescuing another from eBay!  :smokin:
Logged

Offline Elderberry

  • TBR Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,393
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #7 on: February 01, 2017, 01:56:29 pm »
I just couldn't think in Reverse Polish Notation. :thud:
Logged

Oceander

  • Guest
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #8 on: February 01, 2017, 02:09:31 pm »
Quote from: Elderberry on February 01, 2017, 01:56:29 pm
I just couldn't think in Reverse Polish Notation. :thud:

Maybe it's just me, but I picked up RPN pretty quickly and I find non-RPN calculators to be obnoxious, particularly when you have to use parentheses.  With RPN you're just operating on a stack.
Logged

Offline Joe Wooten

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,455
  • Gender: Male
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #9 on: February 01, 2017, 02:31:44 pm »
Quote from: Oceander on February 01, 2017, 02:09:31 pm
Maybe it's just me, but I picked up RPN pretty quickly and I find non-RPN calculators to be obnoxious, particularly when you have to use parentheses.  With RPN you're just operating on a stack.

I guess I'm mentally ambidextrous. I had no problem using wither RPN or non-RPN calculators. I used mostly TI calculators in college because they were cheaper. I had a SR-51 until 1978 when I spilled a beer on it, then I bought a TI-59 I used until it crapped out in 1983. I then bought a Sharp EL-5500III that I still use occasionally.
Logged

Offline r9etb

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,467
  • Gender: Male
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #10 on: February 01, 2017, 02:38:24 pm »
Quote from: Elderberry on February 01, 2017, 01:56:29 pm
I just couldn't think in Reverse Polish Notation. :thud:

Once you get used to it, it's really hard to go back to "regular" calculators....

I bought an HP41CX in college for $300 after trying to crunch one lab's worth of wind tunnel data with a "regular" calculator.  Saved my ass, it did.

I loved that calculator. 
« Last Edit: February 01, 2017, 02:39:01 pm by r9etb »
Logged

Offline montanajoe

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,324
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #11 on: February 01, 2017, 02:38:31 pm »
What seemed more amazing to me was that in 78 I picked up a HP31E for about 40 bucks and used it for another 15 years. Hated switching from RPN...
« Last Edit: February 01, 2017, 02:39:14 pm by montanajoe »
Logged

Offline Frank Cannon

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 26,097
  • Gender: Male
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #12 on: February 01, 2017, 02:42:13 pm »
February 2, 1972 someone figured out you could write words on it....

Logged

Offline Joe Wooten

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,455
  • Gender: Male
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #13 on: February 01, 2017, 02:49:37 pm »
Quote from: r9etb on February 01, 2017, 02:38:24 pm
Once you get used to it, it's really hard to go back to "regular" calculators....

I bought an HP41CX in college for $300 after trying to crunch one lab's worth of wind tunnel data with a "regular" calculator.  Saved my ass, it did.

I loved that calculator.

My senior year at UT I had an Energy Systems class that had us analyzing several different components/systems used in power plants. One of the things we did was run tests on a configurable heat exchanger we could run as a 1-2, 2-4, 4-6 counterflow and parallel flow heat exchanger. The lab has just bought a new BASIC computer/Data Acquisition System to take  and reduce the data from each run. About halfway through the class that day, the computer crapped out and it could not be re-booted. The professor was about to cancel for the day, when I volunteered to use my TI-59 and printer to do it instead. It took me about 20 minutes to write and debug the program, and then the other guys in the class would call out the data to me and I would enter it. It took a lot longer than the computer/DAS would have, but it did save us from having to come in on a Saturday to finish the test.
Logged

Offline r9etb

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,467
  • Gender: Male
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #14 on: February 01, 2017, 02:54:30 pm »
Quote from: Frank Cannon on February 01, 2017, 02:42:13 pm
February 2, 1972 someone figured out you could write words on it....

I was particularly fond of the number "80085"
Logged

Offline r9etb

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,467
  • Gender: Male
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #15 on: February 01, 2017, 02:55:54 pm »
Quote from: Joe Wooten on February 01, 2017, 02:49:37 pm
I volunteered to use my TI-59 and printer to do it instead. It took me about 20 minutes to write and debug the program, and then the other guys in the class would call out the data to me and I would enter it. It took a lot longer than the computer/DAS would have, but it did save us from having to come in on a Saturday to finish the test.

Sweet.
Logged

Oceander

  • Guest
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #16 on: February 01, 2017, 03:20:19 pm »
Quote from: r9etb on February 01, 2017, 02:54:30 pm
I was particularly fond of the number "80085"

Or 58008.618
Logged

Offline truth_seeker

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 28,386
  • Gender: Male
  • Common Sense Results Oriented Conservative Veteran
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #17 on: February 01, 2017, 03:33:26 pm »
I still have an HP 12C



and a TI Business Analyst II



I think those can both still be purchased.

Logged
"God must love the common man, he made so many of them.�  Abe Lincoln

Wingnut

  • Guest
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #18 on: February 01, 2017, 04:50:13 pm »
Looks like I found out where the math nerds were hiding today!

Can you post up picks of your Pocket Protectors?

 :smokin:
Logged

Online Weird Tolkienish Figure

  • Technical
  • *****
  • Posts: 18,163
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #19 on: February 01, 2017, 04:52:31 pm »
Quote from: Wingnut on February 01, 2017, 04:50:13 pm
Looks like I found out where the math nerds were hiding today!

Can you post up picks of your Pocket Protectors?

 :smokin:


This calc was before my time, but I fondly remember my TI-80 and writing programs for it.
Logged

Offline mirraflake

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,199
  • Gender: Male
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #20 on: February 01, 2017, 04:54:07 pm »
Quote from: Weird Tolkienish Figure on February 01, 2017, 11:23:08 am
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-35




I bought the Hp-70??? model in late 70's. Looked nearly like the one in the photo. It was $85

@Weird Tolkienish Figure
Logged

Offline Suppressed

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12,921
  • Gender: Male
    • Avatar
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #21 on: February 01, 2017, 07:27:45 pm »
Logged
+++++++++
“In the outside world, I'm a simple geologist. But in here .... I am Falcor, Defender of the Alliance” --Randy Marsh

“The most effectual means of being secure against pain is to retire within ourselves, and to suffice for our own happiness.” -- Thomas Jefferson

“He's so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent.” --Foghorn Leghorn

Online Lando Lincoln

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15,523
  • Gender: Male
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #22 on: February 01, 2017, 07:55:49 pm »
Quote from: Wingnut on February 01, 2017, 04:50:13 pm
Looks like I found out where the math nerds were hiding today!

Can you post up picks of your Pocket Protectors?

 :smokin:

That's hurtful.
Logged
There are some among us who live in rooms of experience we can never enter.
John Steinbeck

Oceander

  • Guest
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #23 on: February 01, 2017, 08:47:41 pm »
Quote from: Suppressed on February 01, 2017, 07:27:45 pm
Or
5318008

It's too bad they didn't have them in hex notation!
Logged

Online Lando Lincoln

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15,523
  • Gender: Male
Re: February 1, 1972: First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395.
« Reply #24 on: February 01, 2017, 08:51:49 pm »
71077345

The "4" is an "h" on those calcs.
Logged
There are some among us who live in rooms of experience we can never enter.
John Steinbeck
Pages: [1]   Go Up
« previous next »