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kristopolousyesterday at 9:16 PM4 repliesview on HN

Show me a highschool math problem you can't do on a $12 Casio scientific like the classic FX-300MS https://www.usaofficemachines.com/csofx300ms-fx-300ms-scient...

There's even knockoffs of it for $1: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256809744184708.html

I picked one up when the 99 cent store was shutting down. It works fine.

Look what you can get for $20: https://www.casio.com/intl/scientific-calculators/product.FX...

TI is like the Intuit of the education world. I want to love them but this is ridiculous - a N4120 celeron laptop is the same price - it might be a garbage laptop but it's doing a heck of a lot more for your $160 than this calculator is.


Replies

jhallenworldyesterday at 10:07 PM

My favorite cheap Casio is fx-115ES Plus 2nd Edition, $17

https://www.amazon.com/Casio-fx-115ESPLS2-Advanced-Scientifi...

Includes GCD and LCM, some of the newer ones don't have them.

If you want graphing, there is the newish fx-CG100 has a nice display, but they removed Casio basic, it now only has micro Python (way too awkward to type on a tiny keypad):

https://www.amazon.com/Casio-ClassWiz%C2%AE-Calculator-Funct...

The older ones that still have basic:

https://www.amazon.com/Casio-fx-9750GIII-Graphing-Calculator...

BTW, here is a review I made of many calculators, measuring keyboard efficiency: (HP-15c still the best)

https://github.com/jhallen/calculator/wiki

rogerrogerryesterday at 9:18 PM

The contrived ones where they make you graph stuff, but that’s about it.

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varun_chyesterday at 9:22 PM

International Baccalaureate math has some stats questions that require a calculator that can do stats questions. Not really possible by hand in exam conditions!

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balls187yesterday at 9:28 PM

Generating a QR code to see the graph online is kind of cool, but also kinda dumb too.

I mean, these days kids have smartphones, what's the point of a graphing calculator?

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