calculator

how many decimal places do u keep in ur calculator?

4 or 5 should be ideal I keep all 9 - but I’m weird…

all 9 - why would you limit yourself?

I go with 9 myself. That way, even if I fail because my calculated results were different from the “correct” answer, I’ll still have a warm feeling deep inside because I did the correct thing. Unless that feeling happens to be a stomach ulcer…

I am wondering if i should change the battery before the exam in case my calculator fall sick on the crucial day. I bought it 1.5 years back Should I? Thanks

4 decimal places is enough. I don’t think changing the battery before the exam is necessary unless figures on the screen become less visible. But don’t worry, you battery is not going to dry in 3 hours. It rather need 3 weeks for you to realize that you need to change it.

you are allowed to bring an extra battery into the exam.

Decimal points vary… usually 5 for forex questions, but three for most others.

I keep it to all 9 decimal places too. There’s room on the screen for it, why not use it all?

The past few days I was starting to freak out. But this morning as I read posts about replacing batteries and whether we should carry out calcs to 5 or 9 decimal places I am comforted to find out that I am not alone. I have to remind myself that we are going to wake up on 6/8 and the earth is still going to be spinning on its axis. Edit: 9 decimal places… seriously. if your answer is off by $0.000003 are you going to be like hmmm, I guess it isn’t C then.

dumb calculator question: on the HP12C…if i am doing PV a calulation such as (1.06)^270/360. is there an easy way to enter this rather than figuring out 270/360 first, then going back and taking 1.06^.75?

Answer to VegasACE: no! I would say the other way to do it: calculate 270/360 in your head first and then use 0.75 in the calculation. Using an HP12C is *your* choice. But if you know how to use it, it works well, for sure. But I will always say that the “user interface” of the HP is really crap compared to the TI…

RPN rocks.

thanks for response mhannebert…at least i wasn’t missing some sort of shortcut…

VegasACE Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > dumb calculator question: on the HP12C…if i am > doing PV a calulation such as (1.06)^270/360. is > there an easy way to enter this rather than > figuring out 270/360 first, then going back and > taking 1.06^.75? 1.06 hit ENT 270 hit ENT 360 hit divide by key then hit y^x key. = 1.044671

my boss uses an HP and I honestly haven’t figured out how to add a number on it yet. i’m sticking with my BA II plus - and I bought (expensed) a second calculator in case my battery poops out on 6/7 at 9:01 am

RPN is 2X faster than algebraic entry. It takes some getting used to be once you have it down it’s priceless. Of course you can’t ever use any other calculator again.

mwvt9…thanks!!!

Sure.