How Electronic Calculators Work
A modern scientific calculator is an important tool that will help you in your study of physics. Your calculator should be able to express numbers in exponential notation (explained in the next section), and perform operations such as natural and base-10 logarithms, antilogarithms (raising e or 10 to a power), roots, and raising a number to any power.
In order to use a calculator efficiently, you should learn to chain
calculations together. When evaluating an expression such as
it is easiest to multiply 1.202 by 0.850 and leave the result (1.0217) on the
calculator display, subtract 0.0307 (to get 0.991), and divide by 0.576 to get
1.7204861, the final result. On most algebraic notation calculators, it is
not
necessary to press the 
key
after the first
multiplication to obtain 1.0217 on the display. The preceding calculation can
be performed by these keystrokes:
On most algebraic calculators, if the is not pressed
before the 
, only 0.0307 will
be divided by 0.576, and
the final result (0.96840. . . ) will be incorrect .
Note: the calculator does not determine the correct number of significant figures. You must truncate the answer as necessary, according to the rules described in Chapter 1.