HP 48gII - Manual (Page 798)

Page C-4
The same example, corresponding to the RPN operating mode, is shown next:
Approximate vs. Exact CAS mode
When the _Approx is selected, symbolic operations (e.g., definite integrals,
square roots, etc.), will be calculated numerically. When the _Approx is
unselected (Exact mode is active), symbolic operations will be calculated as
closed-form algebraic expressions, whenever possible.
The following screen shows a couple of symbolic expressions entered with an
active exact mode in Algebraic operating mode:
In Algebraic mode, the object entered by the user is shown in the left-hand
side of the screen, followed immediately by a result in the right-hand side of
the screen. The results shown above show the symbolic expressions for ln(2),
i.e., the natural logarithm of 2, and
5
, i.e., the square root of 5. If the
_Numeric CAS option is selected, the corresponding results for these
operations are as follows: