HP 10413 Datasheet download pdf (Page 33)

An alternative to using the ANS key is to use the History facility and the

function. This is discussed on page 43.

The negative key

Another important key is the (-) key (shown right).

If you want to calculate the value of (say) 2(9)

−

−− then

you must use the (-) key before the 2 and the 9 rather than the subtract

key. If you press the subtract key before the 2 instead of the (-) key, then

the calculator will enter instead: Ans - 2, meaning, subtract 2 from the

previous answer. Similarly, entering ‘subtract, subtract 9’ instead of ‘subtract

(-) 9’ will give an error message of “Invalid syntax”, meaning it does not make

mathematical sense to have two subtract signs instead of a subtract of a

negative.

The reason for the Ans - 2 is that a subtract cannot start a ‘sentence’ in

mathematics, while a negative sign can. Since the subtract can’t come first,

the calculator decides that you must have intended to subtract from the

previous answer. Hence the sudden appearance of an Ans. This occurs at

other times too. One of the most common

The

CHARS

key

The next important key is the CHARS key (above VARS). This key is used to

access all of the many characters that are used occasionally but not often

enough to bother putting on the keyboard.

Pressing SHIFT CHARS will pop up the screen

above right. One of the screen keys is set to

be a ‘Page Down’ key (

), and will give

access to two more pages of characters.

These special characters are obtained by

pressing the screen key labeled

. You

can press as many times as you need to

in order to obtain multiple characters. When

you have as many as you need, press the

key.

1 2 ... 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 ... 330 331

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HP 10413 Datasheet Page 33