52 Section 4: Display Control
Keystrokes Display
´^1
12. -03
Engineering notation
display. Display is
rounded to one
significant digit after the
leading digit. Power of
10 is multiple of three.
´^3
12.35 -03
Display is rounded to
third significant digit
after the leading digit.
´^2
12.3 -03
Display changed to
^2 format.
10*
123 -03
Decimal shifts to
maintain multiple of
three in exponent.
´•4
0.1235
Usual •4 format.
Mantissa Display
All numbers held in the calculator’s stack and data storage registers are
represented internally as 10-digit mantissas with two-digit exponents. When you
want to view the full 10-digit mantissa of a number held in the X-register, press
´CLEARu and hold the u key. The mantissa of the currently
displayed number will appear and remain in the display until you release the
u key.
Keystrokes Display
´$
3.1416
´CLEARu
(hold)
3141592654
Rounding at the Tenth Digit
As mentioned earlier, your HP-10C holds every value to 10 digits internally,
regardless of the number of places specified in the current •, i, or
^ display setting. The final result of every calculation or series of
calculations is rounded to the tenth digit. For example, π and 2/3 have
nonterminating decimal representations (3.1415926535 ... and 0.6666666666
...). Because the HP-10C can provide only a finite approximation of such
numbers (10 digits), a small error due to rounding can occur in the tenth digit.
This error can be increased through lengthy calculations, but in the majority of