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An alternative HP-42S/Free42 Manual
(Version 0.6)
2005
Author: José Lauro Strapasson, Brazil.
jlstrapasson@uol.com.br
http://joselauro.com/42s.pdf
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Index Index 1 Introduction 2 Basic Operations 3 Memory 4 Probability 5 Complex numbers 6 Programming 7 Using the Solver 8 Numeric Integration 9 Statistics 10 Matrices 11 Other Bases 12 Flags License for this manual
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1 Introduction Since HP-42S was a very nice calculator, and its official manual is no longer freely available and there were many people looking for its manual, seemed good to me to write my own HP-42S manual. I personally don't have a HP-42S (more than U$300 on ebay). I have a HP-33S and had a HP-48G, but my brother has one and I also use Free42 simulator for PalmOS. This manual can interest people who: a) Have a HP-42S calculator and lost its manual. b) Got the Free42 simulator and want
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2 Basic Operations 2.1 RPN HP-42S as most old HP calculators was a RPN calculator. RPN comes from “Reverse Polish Notation”. In RPN we first enter data and then we enter the mathematical operations. Example: To make a simple operation like 2+2 in a normal algebraic calculator we do 2 + 2 = which give to us 4. To make this using a RPN calculator we do 2 ENTER 2 + As we can see in RPN mode we first enter the data pressing the ENTER key after every data (except for the last in HP's RPN) and then we
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So algebraic calculators are ambiguous because the many ways they work. RPN calculators are more standard and so less ambiguous. The main key to understand how to use RPN in more complex calculus is to realize that in RPN we make calculations from “inside” to “outside” instead of from left to right. Example: 8 x ln[5+sin(40)] in RPN is doing by 40 sin 5 + ln 8 x In RPN we can make any calculation we do in algebraic devices and this is not only more elegant but also more effective since there ar
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IMPORTANT: For sake of simplicity sometimes we will use / instead of ÷. 2.5 Menus Not all functions of HP-42S are visible above the keys. It has menus with much more functions. The menus are ALPHA, MODES, DISP, CLEAR, SOLVER, ∫f(x), MATRIX, STAT, BASE, CONVERT, FLAGS, PROB, CUSTOM, PGM. FCN, PRINT, TOP.FCN and CATALOG. 2.6 DISP Menu The DISP menu is the first menu we have to see. It is above E key. So start by pressing ▀ DISP. When you do this the DISP menu appears in the first line with the fol
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1.41421356237 As you can see the numbers are not truncated but rounded. Not all numbers can be seem with a fixed decimal precision. If you put 4 digits for fixed precision 8 x the number π will appear as 3.1416 but if one calculate (do this by doing 8 ▀ ) what 10 10 you are going to see is 100,000,000.000 with 3 decimal digits. This happens because the calculator cannot show more than 12 digits at a same line. 2.6.2 The ALL function We already talked about ALL function. It makes the calculator
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make the calculator to use ',' for decimal point and by pressing RDX. we make it use '.' for decimal point. Again the active mode is followed by a ■ sing. Here, in this manual, I suppose the calculator using '.' for decimal point. 2.6 MODES Menu To access MODES menu just press ▀ MODES. (MODES is above +/- key). DEG actives degree mode for trigonometric functions. In this mode a circumference has 360 degrees. RAD actives radian mode and in this mode a circumference has 2π radians or just 2π. GR
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this case the content just entered appears only once. So if you do 2 1/x or another example 9 √x what you will have will be i) Only the content of the line 4 (line t) will be lost. ii) The content of line 3 (z) goes to line 4 (t). iii)The content of line y goes to line 3 (z). iv)The content of line x goes to line y. v) Your result will be in the first line x. This second way to enter data looks more intuitive to me and I think it should be aways like this. But it is not!:( So to do 2+3 we have t
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x LN and ▀ e : These functions calculate the base e=2.71828... logarithm and it's inverse. Unlike LOG these are very, very important functions! But what about if we want a logarithm in another base? It would be nice to have a special key for this but it is just about remembering that log y=log y/log x where z is any other base. x z z If we take z=e=2.71828... we have log y=ln y/ln x . x log 8 Example: Calculate 2 3 Answer: 8 LN 2 LN / which give us 3 because . 2 =8
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ABCDE FGHI JKLM NOPQ RSTUV WXYZ These are sub-menus. If you press now ABCDE what you will have is A B C D E Then just pick the letter you want. But above you can see this symbol ▼▲. This symbol means the menu has more t
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3 Memory The real HP-42S has about 7200 bytes of memory while Free42 can have much more depending on the available memory in the computer/handheld. In fact, 7200 bytes is a lot of memory for HP-42S! A program of 10 lines uses about 15 bytes of memory. This means that while in some other models like HP-20S you would be able to program just 99 lines with 42S you would be able to create programs with thousands of lines! This available memory is shared with everything including programs, variables,
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Actually is not just PI you type but NOPQ P FGHI I but we wrote that for simplicity. Now to get this number back it is just type RCL “PI”. When you type RCL the “PI” should appear to you select it. You can also use STO+, STO-, STOx and STO÷ even in this case since the types of the things you are operating are the same. We can deal with the four lines of the stack as we deal with the memory positions. In this case the lines of the stack are called ST X, ST Y, ST Z and ST T respectively. To access
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3.3 The ▀ CUSTOM menu This is not related to memory but as we saw the FCN function in the CATALOG menu we are already able to talk about it. The HP-42S calculator has a lot of functions. And it is not a good idea to find the function you want every time in the FCN or to use every time XEQ “function name”. To solve this problem HP-42S has the CUSTOM menu which can contain function you personally select. To do this we use ▀ ASSIGN. When you call this you can select a function from FCN and also som
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4 Probability Probability functions are in ▀ PROB menu (over x key). They are COMB, PERM, N!, GAM, RAN and SEED. COMB: This calculates the number of combinations of N things taken r at a time. The order does not matter. A thing cannot appear more than one time. Example: If we have the five letters a, e, i, o and u the possible combinations taken one at a time are {a,e,i,o,u}. This means 5 combinations. Taken two at a time {ae, ai, ao, au, ei, eo, e
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For a integer number we have Γ(n)=(n-1)! and Γ(n+1)=n!. The number in gamma function must be real. In this point HP-42S is different from 33S which has only one function for both things. RAN: This is the random number generator which gives a pseudo-random number in 0≤x≤1. SEED: A sequence of pseudo-random numbers always starts with a seed. If you repeat the seed the sequence repeats. To enter a new seed just enter a number and press SEED. If the seed is zero the calcula
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5 Complex Numbers 5.1 Complex numbers in rectangular coordinates. Unlike the HP-33S (and its ancestor HP-32SII) complex numbers are straight supported and used in HP-42S. There is almost nothing special to say. Just enter -1 and press √x, what are you going to have is x: 0.0000 i1.0000 which means i. (Just to you have an idea to do the same in HP-33S we have to do x 0 ENTER 1 +/- ENTER 0 ENTER .5 CMPLX and we will have 0 and 1 meaning i) y Despite it is possible we don't need to calculate the s
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6 Programming Programming in HP-42 is very simple. It does not use RPL style of HP-48 or HP-49. You program in the same way you use the calculator and unlike some non hp cheaper calculators all the steps are shown in the display and in numbered lines. 6.1 Basic programming. Let's imagine you want to make a given calculation. For example: Suppose you want to solve a 2 2 equation which is of the form: . x −5 x4=0 ax bxc=0 As you know the solution for this kind of equation is −b ± ∆ 2 where ∆ =
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RCL 00 x ÷ So what about if you have to solve more 100 of this kind of equation? Only changing the a, b and c values? It would be better to save all the steps in the calculator's memory and let it do the calculations for you. This is what calculators programming is about. To enter in the program mode you must do ▀ PRGM (above R/S key). If the memory has no program you are going to see: 00►{ 0-Byte PRGM} 01 .END. (If there is a program we can erase it by doing ▀ CLEAR CLP before entering
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1 STO 00 5 +/- STO 01 4 STO 02 Now we just press R/S (to run the program) and we get 1, and pressing it again we have 4. 6.2 More than one program in the memory. If we want to have more than one program in the memory we can use more than one program space. To create another program space just press ▀ GTO .. The ▀ GTO command can be used in two different situations: i) You are not in the programming mode. -In this case you can use ▀ GTO .. to create another empty program space, but this happens o
