Reddit reviews Casio Advanced Scientific Calculator with 2-Line Natural Textbook Display (FX-115ES)

You're in Physics, stop using your phone as a calculator. Especially if you're in college.

Get a Casio FX-115es, it's the best and last calculator you'll ever need.

This is what I carry on my person at school:

---

North Face ACCESS Pack Backpack, No zippers to get your more frequently used items, and plenty of protection for a laptop.

Dell XPS 13 9350-10673SLV Signature Edition Laptop, Is laptop, does what it says on the tin. 13 inch is the perfect size imo, as long as you have something bigger available in your room or a computer lab.

Dell Power Companion External Battery, For those long days on campus where you need a bit more power. Reasonably light with lots of power.

Pilot G2 Pen, The best pen in the world I think. Fantastic at writing a clean, smooth line, and cheap enough that I don't care if I lose it.

Pentel Graph Gear 1000 Automatic Drafting Pencil
, I think one of the best pencils in the world. However I save this for scantron tests and other places where I can't use a pen, as I honestly prefer the Pilot G2.

Writing Tablet
, It's paper, what more do you want. I experimented around with proper bound notebooks and such but I find this is much more convenient because I usually need to pass in what I write, or it's just scratch I can throw out.

Fuse Chicken TITAN LOOP Key Chain Cable, Charge your phone on the go! Always have to have a lightning cable available.

Casio FX-115ES Scientific Calculator, A nice capable (but not graphing) calculator. I've never had a class where my graphing calculators could be used, and I rarely use this now as well. Still good to have in the backpack though.

iClicker, Gotta get those sweet lecture quiz points.

Mini Wireless Mouse, Just a bluetooth mouse to use with the laptop if I'm doing more intense work. Rarely used, but good to have.

+Phone +Wallet

This very question gets asked occasionally on reddit. Out of all the calculators on the list, the Casio fx115 clearly has the most bang for the buck, as well as having a couple of nice features that the others don't have. Even though you aren't going to use the HP, it should nonetheless be noted that the quality with HPs have gone down and the later models can be quite buggy. I think most of the engineering for them got outsourced. BTW, the Casio is a dual solar with battery backup.

This bad boy: Casio Advanced Scientific Calculator with 2-Line Natural Textbook Display (FX-115ES). Cheap, simple, and allowed for exams.

For anyone who doesn't know, the Casio FX-115 is an excellent alternative to most graphing calculators for most applications. One example here.


What you lose in the ability to graph, you make up for in utilities to symbolically evaluate definite integrals, derivatives, matrix and vector manipulations, complex number calculations, statistical analysis, and a $20 price tag. It is also "legal" for most tests that mathematicians, scientists, and engineers in training might have to take. Many reviews suggest that the cheaper, non "plus" version of the calculator is more usable/ better.

This bad boy: the [Casio FX-115ES.](http://www.amazon.com/Casio-FX-115ES-Advanced-Scientific-Calculator/dp/B000A3IAHM "shiny") For taking the FE exam in April.

Also: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I already torrented it, but I like to support films like that, because it's fantastic.

Hell yeah!

i have 2 calculators, the first casio 115ES is allowed on the FE exam (Fundamentals of Engineering) that you take upon graduation so its good to be familiar with it

Casio 115ES has a natural display thats unbelieveably good, much better than other 115 series casio.

$14 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000A3IAHM/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i01

the seconds is a TI N-spire CX CAS (Computer Algebra System)
it allows you to solve any equations symbolically ex: integrating from x to infinity using x and infinity as terms..

it will probably not be allowed on exams but for $144 from amazon it has a color screen and touchpad mouse cursor and is within 2 years old and will be relevant for the forseeable future

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004NBZAYS/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00

This won't be what you want to hear, but it's what you need to hear. Having a calculator that will perform so many functions like the ones listed could end up being more of a hassle than a help. The reason I say this, is because when you have a linear equation you're wanting to solve in front of you, and you take the time to find the equation solver, input the equation, and wait for an answer, you could probably have the equation solved by hand in a lot of cases. Now, there's also the task of learning where all of the functions are, and knowing how and when to use them.

There is another reason why a calculator can be a hassle, that doesn't have to do with the calculator itself. When you depend on a calculator, you sacrifice your ability to think for yourself. You should know how to manipulate equations, solve them, graph them, etc. on your own without a calculator. Nowadays, there's calculators and CAS programs which do all of this for you, however, it's not doing you any favors. I would go so far as to say you shouldn't use a calculator at all in your math classes, except when time doesn't permit that. Sometimes in a test, you'll have to use a calculator to prevent running out of time. However, in your spare time and on your homework, try not to use a calculator at all, and learn to derive values for yourself or memorize the more common values. What I mean is, it wouldn't hurt at all to learn how to calculate logarithms, trigonometric functions, etc. by hand. Graph certain types of functions and learn what their graphs look like. If you plan on going into a STEM career, there's a good chance that your university classes won't even allow you to use a calculator, and if you're dependent on them, it will hurt you in the long run.

Now, for your physics classes, I would recommend having a nice scientific calculator to use to save time. The calculations you do in physics would take way too much time to solve without a calculator, since for a typical physics problem you may have to perform several calculations. Therefore, in your math classes, I wouldn't recommend using a calculator, but in physics it would be okay to save time.

When I was in the 10th grade, I wanted a very complex calculator that could do everything, so that I wouldn't have to. So, I went out and bought the HP33S, which was one of the top calculators of its day. It could do just about everything you wanted it to do. I quickly found, though, that it did so much that I didn't know how to use it. I eventually learned how to use it when I was in college and I knew what all of those functions were for. Until then, I went out and bought me this calculator. It did everything I needed it to do, and it served me well through High School.

I hope you consider my advice and I hope all goes well for you, but just know that being dependent on technology will not do you any favors. Technology isn't bad, and it's certainly useful for when you become a scientist or an engineer, or a doctor or whatever, but while you're still a student and developing your math/science skills you should focus on building that up and not letting technology do all the work for you.

Do people actually use graphing calculators? I'm asking because in my country you can go through engineering and science without evening setting your eyes on one. It was like a unicorn. We just used a scientific calculator (I used this one) and a computer for all our graphing need. Plus, when I went to grad school in Florida, they didn't allow you to use graphing calculators for the quals.

I second the dry erase. Expo clicks are my favorite thing ever because I hate letting them dry out, even when I talk.

This is my favorite calculator. Gives exact values [sqrt(12) = 2sqrt(3) and not 3.46, unless you want it to be] and it's not clunky.

Hey, I am a Highschooler.
I would like a new scientific calculator since mine is broke from years of use.
http://www.amazon.com/Casio-Advanced-Scientific-Calculator-Textbook/dp/B000A3IAHM/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1374977187&sr=8-5&keywords=scientific+calculator

One lesson I learned was to enjoy life as the journey and not the destination.
Today when I look back at anything (concerts, events, ext) I always remember and cherish the journey more then the event it self.

I will soon be heading to college and I hope I can come out as strong and educated (both school and full of wisdom) as you seem to be.

Thanks!

I was schooled

If you want to save some money and just want a scientific calculator, I HIGHLY recommend Casio's natural display calculator. Only $20. I've had one since junior year of high school and bought a 2nd one junior year at Purdue and never bought or used a graphing calculator.

It won't graph, but you can enter an equation and it will give you the X/Y (or in this case, X/f(X)) points in a table for you to use and graph. It can also solve definite integrals and derivatives.

The best part, though, is that it's natural display. So it will give you answers like sqrt(2), 1/3, 4pi, etc., rather than 1.6542135432468421... and you can enter in equations the same way. I think graphing calculators do this now too, but there's still the $80 difference.

Granted, I didn't do engineering, so maybe graphing will work best, but my program had the same amount of math, so I thought I would offer my 2 cents.

The TI-30X is pretty decent. I used it through most of middle school and some of highschool before we were forced to buy the rip-off TI-83/84 for Algebra II and up.

A more expensive alternative would be this

This is my current calculator of choice. The "textbook" display helps with entering trickier equations. The integration and matrix stuff is pretty helpful too.