Is there any point in keeping a scientific calculator these days?

[TeacupTurtle]

Remember these - back in the day? Having a clear-out of the junk drawer & I came across my old school calculator.. It's over 3 decades old!! but is still in perfect working order. I can't see any point in keeping it can you? These days if we need to work something out we just use our phones. My kids never wanted it. I can remember our old maths teacher insisting we 'invest' in a good quality calculator that could do logarithms & would 'last a lifetime'... Well yup, here it is, 'lasting' ok, but we have no need of it. Honestly, when was the last time any of us was caught short needing to work out a logarithm in real life? Shall I dump it in the charity shop?

My DD is doing A level maths and uses a scientific calculator, they still use them!

Shame I don't know any kids of the right age or I could pass it on.

Scientific calculator is on the required list for DD1's new high school. I was a bit surprised.

I use one sometimes to check statistics stuff I do on the computer.

Casio are bloody awesome we bought a €3 Casio watch on holiday 6 years ago and it still keeps perfect time/date. My expensive watch has been for repairs and new batteries twice.

It's still on the equipment list for my DS who is starting secondary in September. The school doesn't allow phones in the school day so they still need a separate calculator

My dd is just finishing her maths masters. About five years ago her dad had to buy her a super duper calculator that cost well over £100.

This year I replaced my 1979 fx-82 with a newer calculator.

The new ones are very fancy, can add in fractions & factorise to name but two things.

Rockbird In the GCSE maths there are calculator papers and non-calculator papers. But you obviously can't use your mobile phone as a calculator in exams!

I use one at work all the time (accountant) as my phone isn’t as easy to get the correct form on and a calculator is much quicker than booting Excel up. Love mine. Replaced my uni one when it got pinched at work so it’s bright blue and harder to abscond with!

My secondary school age kids still use it. Currently for cos, sign and tan (something I have evidently blocked out)

I still use a scientific calculator quite regularly at work, when I need to check things that I've been sent on paper, or do some complicated maths. (But I am an accountant, so maybe not the norm.)

Phone calcs are shit, scientific calcs are the best.

And secondary school kids will definitely need one, two of their maths GCSE papers require a calculator and they’re not allowed their phones (which work differently anyway).

I wouldn't mind having it if it's up for offer! I've worn the buttons off my calculator I've had since my first year of uni a long long time and your one is a very similar model!

Butter Honestly, buy a new one. ~£13 and way more features than the old ones. I can now even do sin 63 rather than 63 sin.

teentimestwo I have done but have not found any as good as my original one. What I'm after in particular is the eng buttons at the top which are incredibly useful for the types of calculations I would do as a synthetic chemist which involve lots of conversions between g and moles and mg/L and mmol/L etc. Lots of conversions between 0.001 g and 1.0 mg and back again, for example, which can be done at the touch of those buttons.

The layout of this calculator is also pretty much the same as my old calculator so I wouldn't have to learn where the new buttons are (or resort to having to search on Google images for a picture of my favoured calculator so I could use it with the button labels rubbed off like I did when writing my PhD thesis.). I've been watching eBay for a few years now looking for one similar, I'm quite attatched!

*Attached

Just replaced the battery in mine tonight so dd can use it in her business exam.

I couldn't do my job (actuary) without a basic scientific calculator (well, OK, I could be like some people and use Calc on the PC or type every scratch calculation into Excel but it's quicker and somehow more satisfying to click real buttons, plus sometimes I want to compare what's in my hand with something on the screen).

I may generally only use it for basic arithmetic but it's one of those with a two-line display, so makes it easy to check and edit what you've typed. I do occasionally use powers, roots, logs. (pi and trig functions at home helping with children's homework).

5318008

Keep it for that reason alone!

Oh wow, that brings me back to 1987!

Presumably they still use them at school when phones aren't allowed. I still use mine at work and it's about 30 years old. I would donate it to the school so they can let students who might not be able to afford their own to use it.

Ooooh (sighs of geeky ecstasy), I think it's old enough that it's reverse Polish notation! Aaaahhh. (Sends OP a self addressed envelope and a tenner...)

(For non-geeks, this means that instead of typing sin(60), you type 60 then sin... The scoping rules for reverse Polish are now in my muscle memory from school, but it's really hard to get hold of them now).

I've killed the thread, haven't I?

It was 55378008 in my school

I had to buy my boy one for starting high school. Can’t remember the last time I needed to work our a logarithm or a cosine though!