HP-35 Scientific Calculator Getting Milestone Award

wp1_-spaceWhen you look back over the past few decades there is one handheld gadget that has unquestionably had the greatest impact on society. The HP-35 scientific calculator single-handedly (pun intended) replaced the venerable slide rule and changed the game for an entire generation of students and engineers.

I remember my first HP-35 quite clearly as it was literally the first computer that could be held in the hand. I had the magnetic strip reader and pocket printer to go along with the HP-35 and together this system was like nothing seen before. Little programs could be written to make the calculator do complex functions, and it played a big role in my early work as a geophysicist. It is only fitting the HP-35 is today being recognized for the game changer it was at the time.

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 14, 2009 – HP today announced that IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional association, has awarded HP the prestigious IEEE Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing award for its HP-35 Scientific Calculator.

Introduced in 1972, the HP-35 was the world’s first handheld-sized scientific calculator. An instant hit, the HP-35 ultimately made the slide rule, which had previously been used by generations of engineers and scientists, obsolete.

  • The HP-35, named for its 35 keys, was the first handheld calculator to perform transcendental functions such as trigonometric, logarithmic and exponential functions.
  • At the time, contemporary calculators could only perform four basic functions – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
  • The now classic “Reverse Polish Notation” (RPN) first used in the HP-35 has become the most efficient way known to computer science for evaluating mathematical expressions.
  • In the first three years after its introduction in 1972, sales of the HP-35 Scientific Calculator exceeded 300,000 units.
  • Forbes ASAP named HP 35 as one of the 20 “all time products” that have changed the world.
  • It was the world’s first handheld scientific calculator with a LED display.
  • HP-35 has traveled to the top of Mt. Everest for use in altitude and navigation calculations.
  • HP-35 is regularly used to navigate ships.
  • HP-35 has been used by astronauts aboard spacecraft to calculate the exact angle of re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
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