I have a new graphic calculator and I’m also reading about the Mandelbrot Set and trying to follow that.
I have a basic problem that I’m missing…maybe you can help.
All real numbers when squared are positive. When I punch in “–2 x –2” I get “4” as expected.
I also have a “power” key on the calculator (looks like an upside down “V”) which should do the same thing if I type in “–2” “V” 2 but that give an answer of “–4”
I also have a “squared” key that looks like “x2” and that should do the same thing but also gives an answer of “–4” when I type in “–2” “x2”
So, the first method gives “4” and the second two both give “–4”.
Why aren’t they all giving “4” as the answer? What am I missing?
Thanks
-2^2 is -4 because the calculator doesn't assume (-2)2, it assumes -22.
The same thing is going on with the squared key.
Edit: Is it a TI-84?
I know what’s happening. Somehow you’ve got your hands on a Chinese Lumen Calculator. They are always wildly inaccurate on the positive side…………… 
Yes, it is a TI-84. You are right, now that I’ve added () so that it’s (–2)^2 I get 4 and the same with the squared key when I square (–2). Thanks.
TI’s are RELIGIOUS about order of operation. With a square or Carot (^), it’s only applied DIRECTLY to whats in front of it.
I use parenthesis on my TI to a rediculous degree, just to be safe….I’m a junior year electrical engineering major, and I’ve been using the same TI-83+ since 2004 or so.
That’s why the Lord Thy God Hewlett of Packard invented RPN calculators… all you parentheses sucking TI users will burn in Calculator Hell forever… J)
My first RPN was a very early HP. My parents had to drive 100 miles to Goldsmith’s department store in Memphis TN to buy it. It was over a hundred dollars ( in 1975) but they were the only place that had it. I taught my high school “calculus” teacher how to use it (and he was a bright one)… Sophomore 1976. PS I aced the class and was W Tenn champion at state testing. That was actually a big deal back in the day, personal computers had not been invented yet.
Forget rpn! I’d rather type it in the calculator to look like what’s on my paper.
And carmantl, just over a hundred bucks gets you a ti-nspire CAS nowadays. The abilities of them are amazing! I want one just for integration and derivatives.
I used to use HP11c's (RPN) and never really got into them. I still prefer a simple Ti. I had a supervisor that used to tell stories about standing at a bank counter fumbling looking like an idiot with a standard calculator because he was so used to RPN!
-Garry
I’m “ambidextrous” with algebraic and RPN calculators. 
I mostly use RPN for work, sometimes use algebraic for balancing a check book.
TehSpaz, please do the math for me, I am tired and have to go to bed. Convert $100 from 1975 to today’s value……….
Free Android app turns your phone into a ti84+
Wabbitemu
I graduated college in 1972. We used slide rules. I never even saw a desktop calculator until just after graduation when a friend brought me over to the Business School to show me a roomful of nixie tube desktops. I think they were Burroughs
A couple of years later I bought my first engineering calculator, made by a camera company! Cost was $279 in 1975 dollars. It had a gorgeous 7 segment vacuum florescent display.
I have owned many since then but the other day I bought this one for $1 at Dollar Tree. Just had to have it. It is actually quite usuable, the keys are not so cheap as to be a problem, and it is more advanced than the Keystone.
I still have my old HP12C financial calculator. I just got the TI-84. Just for fun I recently got a Soroban (Japanese style abacus) and an old slide rule.
I like the TI-84 but am still getting used to some aspects of it.
It’s been fun going down memory lane with all these calculator pictures. Thanks.
I think my old HP12C has met the test of time better than my old Sinclair computer (which I no longer have) 
I collect vintage calculators, picking up many from flea markets and garage sales for $1-$2 or even less. Many of them still work just fine.
I remember fresh out of college, when starting at my very first Junior Accounting position in 1979, the CEO explaining to me how he actually needed to get approval from the Board of Directors when he purchased his desktop calculator, as it was well over $1,000 and considered a Capital Asset. LOL. Now you can purchase one at the Dollar Tree that is much better.
As with anything, there are a bunch of collectors and web-sites out there….
Enjoy!
There is only one true calculator site. All the others are populated by heretics to the true path to numerical nirvana, blessed be the ENTER key 0:)
Wow.
Thank you for that. Awesome site.
I have at least two of every model of calculator that HP built… including several 9100A’s and 9100B’s… the most awesome calculator ever built. And it has no integrated circuits in it.
I use HP41’s daily…
I had an HP41C that I sold, and wish I didn’t. Ah, well.
ya’ll are missin out on a $100 savings (provided you have a decent phone)
