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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful calculator at a disposable price, 18 Sep 2008
This review is from: Casio FX 85 ES Calculator (Office Product)
The last time I bought a scientific calculator was about twenty five years ago. It had an eight digit display and cost about £15.
Things have moved on! For the price of a glossy magazine, you get this really pretty amazing machine.
The most obvious improvement over previous calculators is the display. The fx-85ES has a multi-line dot-matrix display and an entry method that lets you input calculations in exactly the same way you would write them down. It's fun to see just how ridiculously complex you can make the calculation, with various levels of nesting, fractions within fractions within square roots or cube roots or whatever. The calculator handles it all without missing a beat.
You can choose, from the setup menu, whether to use what Casio calls 'Mathematical mode' or 'Linear mode' for input and output. Math mode lets you input fractions that look like fractions. And you get the results in fractions if it's practical to display them. In this mode you might also get results as irrational numbers if the calculator can give a more accurate (i.e. not rounded) result that way.
In Math mode there are two ways to convert your answer to a regular decimal number. And back.
I'm not familiar with what's needed for students doing GCSEs or A levels, but no doubt this is a very targeted calculator for that kind of user. Certainly, the statistics function seems very complete, with table entries you can edit and perform different functions on. Any table you create stays in memory.
There are several non-volatile memories (the calculator uses a single button battery in addition to the solar cell for this) and you can assign values to them by letter.
You can use these values in the 'table' function too that displays a range of values as a function of X. All this stuff is far in advance of what a bog-standard calculator could do twenty years ago.
The calculator itself is quite large and flat, with a slide on/off hard cover to keep it safe in your bag. It feels tough and well made. The keyboard is excellent.
The display is good, but not perfect (it can look a bit dim). You'll need perfect light for that. But you can adjust the contrast in the setup menu.
I was slightly disappointed to see that the STO function (store to memory) is accessed via a shift key, which makes using the memory a bit convoluted. Generally though, the key layout and the way the calculator works is very intuitive and well laid out. This is just as well because the instruction leaflet has such tiny text that it's almost too hard to read it. This is a shame because the advanced functions deserve proper explanation. You could almost do a GCSE in how to use this calculator.
But at this price you can hardly criticise it. Whether you just want it as an advanced all-round calculator to have in the house, like me, or you're a student doing GCSEs, this Casio can't really be faulted.
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63 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a cheap calculator great for A-level mathematics, 12 May 2007
This review is from: Casio FX 85 ES Calculator (Office Product)
battery will last ages (i'm imagining) as there is a solar panel so no fear of it dying in an exam.
Great features include how it will display answers as fractions automatically..great for precise answers, but it is easy to see the answer in decimal format also at the flick of a button.
when in radian mode it gives answers in terms of pie shouls the answer be an exact muliple of pie; this isn't on all calculators but is very useful
also it will always show square roots when the answer is one, but once again you can flick to decimal at the touch of a button should you wish to.
it automatically cancels down things to their nicest form....very useful
the keys are clearly labelled so it is obvious what key does what
easy to type in fractions within fractions
great calculator...more than i'd expect for the money
even more surprising is the table function where one can get readings for graphs for a range of values
i'd recommend to all, particularly since it is allowed by exam boards and makes certain topics a lot easier
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Head of Maths Recommendation, 6 Feb 2009
This review is from: Casio FX 85 ES Calculator (Office Product)
This is the machine I recommend for all students at my school. Outstanding functionality for the price, and a popular model even for my Year 13 Further Maths students.
The TABLE function is worth the price alone - put in any function of X and it will create a table of values for f(X) from X=a to X=b as you wish. This makes it perfect for trial-and-improvement questions (GCSE) and numerical equation solving at A Level.
The most under-used function is probably the ANS key, which enables easy generation of iterative procedures based on recursion and refinement. For example, setting the calculator to Radians, typing in any number, =, and Cos(ANS) means that repeated pressing of = will now lead you quickly to the solution of the equation Cos X = X. Also very useful for A Level recursive techniques such as the Newton-Raphson procedure.
It is a specious argument to say this is a "cheat" calculator in exams since arithmetical skill is not being assessed, only problem solving. Very useful to see surds and rationals expressed properly in the MATH format of Input/Output. This is NOT a symbolic manipulator, so is well within the functionality of permissible examination machines.
Additional notes - school teachers should purchase the Emulator software (available from school calculator suppliers) in order to demonstrate the use of this machine on the IWB. Students should follow the clear APPENDIX part of the manual which shows actual key presses rather than wordy explanations. Finally, students on A Level Maths courses already should not buy this model but its big cousin the Casio FX 991 ES Calculator as it offers the additional exam-usable tools of complex numbers, matrices, simultaneous & polynomial equation solving and numerical calculus techniques. Remember that you can take two calculators into the exam if you wish, so take the 85ES / 991ES and a graphical calculator of your choice.
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