One note to this otherwise well-made video: The infix notation calculator mode to which you compared postfix (RPN) was a simple type of calculator, only displaying a single number at a time, with operations operating on the number. Such is the style of most cheap non-scientific calculators. The postfix input style is certainly much better in many aspects than this demonstrated simple infix input you demonstrated, especially for quick calculations. However, most UK students from Year 7 and onwards will not be using such calculators, but instead calculators with more advanced displays, where an algebraic expression is visually built before being evaluated, so this is not a fair comparison. This algebraic display of modern scientific calculators offers unique advantages which both simple infix and postfix ones cannot. By narrowing the conceptual gap between expressions as written down and as typed into a calculator, these calculators are much easier to use for creating, editing, evaluating, (and even repeatedly reevaluating with different values) complex equations, especially for visually minded students. This is not to doubt the efficacy of an old-school postfix calculator in the hands of someone intimately familiar with it, but there is still something to be said for preferring to facilitate advanced algebraic reasoning over optimizing ergonomical input speed.
One note to this otherwise well-made video: The infix notation calculator mode to which you compared postfix (RPN) was a simple type of calculator, only displaying a single number at a time, with operations operating on the number. Such is the style of most cheap non-scientific calculators.
The postfix input style is certainly much better in many aspects than this demonstrated simple infix input you demonstrated, especially for quick calculations.
However, most UK students from Year 7 and onwards will not be using such calculators, but instead calculators with more advanced displays, where an algebraic expression is visually built before being evaluated, so this is not a fair comparison. This algebraic display of modern scientific calculators offers unique advantages which both simple infix and postfix ones cannot. By narrowing the conceptual gap between expressions as written down and as typed into a calculator, these calculators are much easier to use for creating, editing, evaluating, (and even repeatedly reevaluating with different values) complex equations, especially for visually minded students.
This is not to doubt the efficacy of an old-school postfix calculator in the hands of someone intimately familiar with it, but there is still something to be said for preferring to facilitate advanced algebraic reasoning over optimizing ergonomical input speed.
I shall have to do a comparison video for newer input logics 👍 good suggestion