Hacker News Reader

Σ(1/n^2,n,1,∞) is a calculation. That TI-89 evaluates it to π^2/6 makes it good at doing them.

1. That’s not a calculation. It’s a special case you either need to know or have to be clever to compute. A calculation might be, say, compute zeta(2). But I don’t really want to argue about semantics.

2. This can evaluate this correctly on the (slightly later) HP-49G+

So given this new information, will you change your mind or try to find some other silly example?

Maybe did you mean it is not arithmetic?

Transcendental functions are not arithmetic, but they are also not algebra (in the CAS sense of the word)

According to wikipedia:

"arithmetic also includes more advanced operations, such as [...] exponentiation, logarithmic functions, and even trigonometric functions, in the same vein as logarithms (prosthaphaeresis)."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com