How to Change Significant Figures on an HP12C

Changing the number of significant digits on an HP12C is quite simple.

The HP12C Digital Financial Calculator is a powerful tool for financial computations. A user may calculate the interest due and amortized amounts for an outstanding payment agreement. A user may also perform advanced financial functions such as cash flow analysis, bond calculations and asset depreciation rates and expenditures. Finally, the HP12C allows the user to perform overall investment analysis. In many of these situations, the user may need a customized number of significant figures or want results to be shown in scientific notation. The HP12C makes this possible.

Instructions

1. Turn on the HP12C. The display will be set to round any answers to two significant digits by default.

2. Press the "f" key to begin changing the default setting for displaying significant figures after the decimal point.

3. Press the number of digits you would like to see displayed. If you wish to have four digits after the decimal point shown, press "4." Answers will now show with this number of places until the setting is changed again.

4. Press "f" followed by "." if you wish for all answers to be displayed in scientific format. This is useful if your values will be too large or too small to show in a standard display. The value will be shown with a two-digit number to the right, indicating the exponent for this answer. You will move your decimal point for your answer based on the value of the exponent given.

References

• Hewlett-Packard: HP12C Users' Guide