Good calculator

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Princess Valiant

Princess Valiant

A.K.A. Rainy Day Auto
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i am teaching a group of middle school kids math as a side job and we are going to cover a matrix section.

My question is: does anyone know a good scientific that can solve matrix problems.....under $40.

I was looking online and it looks like a casio Fx-991es can do a 3 by 3 matrix but its not readily available.

The more available Casio FX-115 es can also do a matrix problem but it seems like it can only do a 2 by 2.......if that is the case then its not worth getting one because these kids should be able to do a 2 by 2 by hand with paper and pencil.

I dont want them to get into graphing Ti series calculators because the scientific is a lot cheaper and legal to use in exams where some exams wont allow the use of a graphing.

either one can do the quadratic equation with one button setup which is nice and easier than a Ti.

I am just trying to save them some time .....knowing the Gauss-jordan method or cramers rule is nice but holy cow it takes so long during an exam.

i know theres a bunch of automotive math gurus here
 

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When i was in school, we used a hewlett packard 11C or 15C. I can't remember how big of a matrix that they can do anymore, but it could handle those. I haven't seen them in a long time....
 
HP15C! (Doubt they've been made since a bit after I got my EE)

I was very excited because it was the first affordable calculator to do matrix math (about $150 in 1983 or so). Made network synthesis a LOT easier/faster!
 
Microsoft Excel will work too.

But whats the fun in that? Brute force, plug and chug substitution by hand sure looks impressive on paper.
 
Ok, speaking of math in another thread LOL.

I got to the bottom of this calculator saga and I have a conclusion.

When you parents have your kids going back to school this fall......give them the edge and give them a Casio Fx-115 ES plus. Available at Wal-Mart dot com for under 15 dollars. This has to be one of the most advanced scientific calculators of all the land.

When I was in my calculus classes I used an Fx-300 ES and I thought that was nice and I assumed the higher model number made it more advanced than the new FX 115 ES. However, they have obviously updated them.

On the left is my old 300 ES and the right is the new 115 ES and you can see how much they updated it and the 115 can do matricies on option 6 there and to find determinates (option 7) is a breeze once you get the hang of it :)
 

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Also, I found out from a friend that CASIO also makes a graphing calculator that is totally sexy. Priced at 47 dollars on walmart dot com, its less than half the price of a TI-83 or TI-84 and it has some very advanced conic section options.

Some of the functions take more keystrokes than a TI but the casio has a few tricks up its sleeve that the TI don't have. I been messing with this thing for a few hours and I don't think I have discovered even a fraction of what it can do.

Its total awesomeness and very affordable. :love7::love7:
 

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Wow. Way over my head.
 
Ahhhh....But can they change the oil in a 1970 dart slant 6? Or mow the lawn?
 
i-Phone.
...also takes pictures, access the internet, makes phones calls, test messages, twitter, and hundreds of other things.
 
Frankie said:
i-Phone.
...also takes pictures, access the internet, makes phones calls, test messages, twitter, and hundreds of other things.
Click to expand...


yes, but for that very reason having an I-phone can get a kid an automatic zero on a test. You can download a calculator app on an I-phone or use it to google math problems and get an answer .....sometimes.

The graphing calculator is not even legal on some exams. Sometimes what we do is give them half the test and tell them they are not allowed to use the graphing calculator, usually stuff like logarithmic problems and stuff that would be too easy to plug into a graphing calculator.

Then after they turn in the first half of the exam and receive the second half, then graphing calculators are ok to use.

The advantage of the FX 115 ^^^ is that it would be legal the whole way through the exam and it can do some of the stuff the graphing can do.
 
What ever happened to memorizing formulas, figuring it out long hand, and showing your work?
Most of the young people today i find can't figure things out in their heads and rely on a calculator too much.
Example:
I went to a store yesterday and bought something that amounted to $9.30, i handed the 16 year old girl cashier a $10.00 bill and thirty cents.
She said to me ''That's too much, sir''.
I explained that i wanted a dollar back in change so i could use the car wash next door. (We have dollar coins here in Canada).
She gave me a surprised look, and i told her to enter the amount i gave her in the cash register anyway.
She did so and the change came out to exactly $1.00.
She couldn't believe that i could do that calculation in my head so fast!
I said it's part of being old and being taught a different way in school.
You get this same thing at drive throughs with the younger people, but surprisingly, never with the older employees.....
 
Dartnut said:
Example:
I went to a store yesterday and bought something that amounted to $9.30, i handed the 16 year old girl cashier a $10.00 bill and thirty cents.
She said to me ''That's too much, sir''.
I explained that i wanted a dollar back in change so i could use the car wash next door. (We have dollar coins here in Canada).
She gave me a surprised look, and i told her to enter the amount i gave her in the cash register anyway.
She did so and the change came out to exactly $1.00.
She couldn't believe that i could do that calculation in my head so fast!
I said it's part of being old and being taught a different way in school.
You get this same thing at drive-threws with the younger people, but surprisingly, never with the older employees.....
Click to expand...


Or giving them change so that you don't get back any pennies, nickles, or dimes...

It's not that the kids are not capable, I believe the teachers are not empowered with discipline as much anymore-and that the culture has changed where people lay responsibility elsewhere, or cannot focus because of entertainment & discipline levels. Many of the women in my family are teachers. Some of the inner city public schools in San Antonio are so depressing with high-school aged children barely able to read.-and mom is supposed to teach biology, chemistry, to students with those capabilities.
 
Dartnut said:
Example:
I went to a store yesterday and bought something that amounted to $9.30, i handed the 16 year old girl cashier a $10.00 bill and thirty cents.
She said to me ''That's too much, sir''.
I explained that i wanted a dollar back in change so i could use the car wash next door. (We have dollar coins here in Canada).
She gave me a surprised look, and i told her to enter the amount i gave her in the cash register anyway.
She did so and the change came out to exactly $1.00.
She couldn't believe that i could do that calculation in my head so fast!
Click to expand...

I see that everywhere I go, it's so frustrating.

I stopped at a TA truck stop for fuel, went into get my fuel receipt and grab a couple of things. The gal said that will be 9.20, I gave here a 20 and she hit the buttons on the register before I could hand her 20 cents. When I gave her the 20 cents she looked at me real puzzled like, I said I need 11 bucks back.

She didn't believe me and had to get a calculator from under the counter to figure it out. :banghead:

I'm thinking, really??
 
what you guys are talking about is completely different than what the point of these calculators are for. Its almost like there are two different kinds of math here.

1. simple addition and subtraction which everyone should be able to do, most of it can even be done in your head such as giving back change as some of you are talking about.

2. Preparation and execution of a calculus or advanced calculus class in which the calculators in this thread are simply tools.

You wouldn't get a graphing calculator to know how much change to give back, that would be like going to the grocery store in a tank (still be cool though). In an advanced class though, even with a calculator in hand like the ones here in this thread, still require a considerable skill. You would still need to have already learned formulas and know what you are doing. A calculator of this caliber is a tool and not a magic box with all the answers.

If anyone has kids going into College algebra, calculus, or advanced calculus then these calculators are highly recommended and that is what the review is for. If anyone knows someone who cant give change back then these calculators wont do them much good and they need extensive tutoring with the basics.

I would be happy to help anyone out if I can.
 
Ahhh Rani, you know how we get sidetracked sometimes, lol.

I wonder if using a calculator (for anything) is really best sometimes, when I was in high school we weren't allowed to use calculators, we had to show the work on paper.

Which now looking back, I agree with to an extent, because if we had been using calcs we would have been learning how to use a calculator rather than how to do the actual work, and I'm referring to Algebra. That's as far as I wanted to go, that was bad enough, the rest would made my head melt.

I can't find ours at the moment, but I think my kids were using a Texas Instrument.
 
Rani, i misunderstood you in the o.p. when you stated that you were teaching a group of middle school kids math.
This must be an advanced group of kids compared to the others of that age.
To me, as i was taught back in the late '70s, math was a seporate class that you had to pass before you went on to algebra and finally calculus.
The ''math'' thing is what really threw me off, as i am not aware of the terminology used today for these new students.
When i took algebra and physics in grade 10, 11, and 12, we were allowed to use calculators on some of the tests. On all tests we could use a slide rule though......
We also used sine, cosine, and tangent charts to determine answers and had to show all of our work in writing on the test, or else we were deducted points from our score.
Times certainly have changed!
Sorry if i got off topic.....
 
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