Russell McMahon <apptech <at> paradise.net.nz> writes:
> I always carry a 4 function calculator with square root (which most 
> calculators have these days) plus a single memory. I carry this one 
> because it has a hard shell (essential if it is going to survive me 
> for more than a week), and a large display for it's size and a 
> reasonably good keyboard.

I also ***ALWAYS*** have a calculator with me, and it is indestructible.  It 
has fairly good speed, although as number of digits goes to 4-6 it calculations 
tend to take longer.  But at 3-4 digits, especially for numbers in scientific 
notation, my calculator beats most other people's calculators.  
What is my calculator?  My head.

BTW, very often calculations made on-the-fly need only 1-2 significant digits 
or even just an approximation.  Which is easy and faster to do in head.

> FWIW - if you remember a very few logs to about 4 digits you can 
> derive enough others to do a creditably good job of taking the log of 
> most numbers - enough so that you can perhaps do it in your head while 
> clinging to the side of a precipice (oe elsewhere), when using a hand 
> to access your calculator is liable to be life threatening. Whether 
> you ever would want to will depend on how deeply engrained 
> engineeringness is in uour psyche.

Couple of square root usefull too, e.g. sqrt(2), (3), (4), (5), (7)
just kidding about sqrt(4)!

Sergey



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