The 8 year old scientific calculator that I’ve been using finally surrendered after a nasty fall from my dining table while I was working on some Math problems for my tuition kid. The red cable feeding the screen with power was kind of broken. To fix it, I’ll need to solder it back the cable but without any tools for that at present, the calculator is effectively out of service. I contemplated for quite a long time and eventually decided to get a new calculator. I decided on an ‘upgrade’ to Casio’s fx-991MS from my previous fx-95MS.
Since it’s a more ‘hi-tech’ calculator, it not only cost me more but also require more tinkering to learn how to use it. It can perform Base-n calculations, which is very valuable for programming purpose and computer exams; it works with complex numbers, useful for engineering students and other studies involving vectors; it can also do definite integrals and differentiation. If these features sound too good to be true, it probably is because even the manual gives a disclaimer for features like the ‘solver’ function:
The SOLVE function may be unable to obtain a solution, even though a solution exists…
Due to certain idiosyncrasies of Newton’s Method, solution for the following types of functions tend to be difficult to calculate (read: takes ages for the calculator to provide any decent solution)…
Nevertheless, the fact that it computes complex numbers never fails to amaze me. I used to think that only the graphic calculators were capable of that but it appears that the algorithms governing complex numbers is not that complex after all. Same goes with those for computing the arguments of complex numbers. The ability to do vector product is also going to be exceptionally useful for vector calculations.
Well, more exploring to do.
