Your comment in that article that the numeric precision is ‘inadequate’ at 10 decimal digits, no guard digits, is true albeit somewhat subjective. Still, tens of thousands of 41C owners still did a lot of useful work with that machine. Just 8 digits is more than enough for most engineering calculations, even today. I of course exclude calculations requiring matrix math or solving families of differential equations.

Another way to look at the 41C is as an extremely powerful, programmable slide rule replacement. Again, 8 digits far exceeds the 3-4 digit capability of the slide rule.

I suspect the 41C even stood up well compared to other personal calculation solutions of that time.

I don’t mean to be too picky about an article you wrote over twenty years ago, but it is worth considering what was available to scientists and engineers at that time, at the cost of the 41C. Today we’re spoiled. For ‘hand’ calculations I use a TI Voyage 200, with a numerical precision of 14 digits, guard digits, and 640-digit exact arithmetic. Needless to say, I would not go back to my 41C.