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Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

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Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#81

Post by BeetleB »

parsimo2010 wrote: post #9

Relative to other graphing calculators, I've always felt that Casio's offerings were a good value relative to TI- ever since TI captured the education market they stopped being cool and definitely stopped being a good value. I think that having Python is a neat feature. I have strong opinions about calculators in general, and have owned a wide range of Casio, HP, TI, and even some old/niche ones that only real calcul…

As someone else pointed out, the benefit of calculators is the tactile feedback of the buttons. Once you know your calculator well enough, you can operate it much quicker than most people can operate a smartphone. It would probably take me 5x longer to do a complex calculation on my phone's interface - time poorly spent on an exam.

Having said that: Once I left university I use a calculator only when doing taxes.

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#82

Post by unsignedint »

lioeters wrote: post #67

It's surprising there is no "Buy" button. A few clicks starting with "Where to buy?" in the footer menu led me to the answer to my question: the calculator costs $60. https://www.casioeducation.com/products/calculators/graphing...

The link is for 9750. It turns out searching Fx-9860GIII reveals it won't be any less than $100.

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#83

Post by dTal »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #45
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #2

It's a shame it has a screen that looks like it came from the turn of the century.

Transflective screens require very little power. You do not want to have to deal with having to recharge or swap the battery every few days!

Surprised you're the only one to point this out. It's a feature, not a bug. It runs for 300 hours off 4 AAA batteries.

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#84

Post by jhallenworld »

rhexs wrote: post #77
jhallenworld wrote: post #76

I'm liking the Casio FX-115ES PLUS rev 2 ($14.50), because it simplifies rationals and has LCM, GCD and factorization. For example, when you enter sin(60), it gives sqrt(3)/2, enter 1/(1+sqrt(3)) gives (sqrt(3)-1)/2 or enter sqrt(120) gives 2*sqrt(30). https://www.amazon.com/Casio-fx-115ESPLS2-Advanced-Scientifi... This is helpful for my kid's math class. You wouldn't buy a textbook from Texas would you? So why buy a…

Really neat. Is there anything cheap like this that will do simple base conversion -- i.e. hex to base 10 and so on?

This one can do it, but there are definitely even cheaper calculators that can also do base conversions. One nice thing about this one is that it can do log base 2. (any calculator with log can do it, but with this you don't even have to remember the formula).

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#85

Post by vondur »

to11mtm wrote: post #78
indymike wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every kid at my children's school have a Chromebook. The exact same model. Calculators are really relics of a bygone era and it is time education realizes there is greater value in embracing better tech than trying to stop a bogeyman.

> Every kid at my children's school have a Chromebook. That's Great. What about every kid in Detroit, Flint, or Chicago? Solutions need to make sure we don't widen the digital divide.

Tons of schools are going to chrome books. In fact digital books are distributed this way and cheaper than physical books.

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#86

Post by qwerty456127 »

Looks very cool already.

But If they could add sound (with a hardware AAC codec), WiFi, SD card and HTTPS i/o with MicroPython, I would probably make it the only gadget I would carry with myself (and also use for reading, writing, listening and communicating, not just computations). This could be amazing - an all-purpose no-bullshit pocket computer with a eInk screen and without usual smartphone-related bloat.

Now I use an Android smartphone which I can't program because of the insane hardware requirements (ans also some learning curve I don't have time for) of the today mobile development toolchain. If only it could simply expose a Python with concise IO functions and a 2D array for the screen buffer...

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#87

Post by lioeters »

unsignedint wrote: post #82
lioeters wrote: post #67

It's surprising there is no "Buy" button. A few clicks starting with "Where to buy?" in the footer menu led me to the answer to my question: the calculator costs $60. https://www.casioeducation.com/products/calculators/graphing...

The link is for 9750. It turns out searching Fx-9860GIII reveals it won't be any less than $100.

Oops, you're right! Further search shows 110 GBP, or 90 on sale.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Casio-FX-9860GIII-Advanced-Graphic-...

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#88

Post by laurencerowe »

qz2 wrote: post #18
parsimo2010 wrote: post #9

Relative to other graphing calculators, I've always felt that Casio's offerings were a good value relative to TI- ever since TI captured the education market they stopped being cool and definitely stopped being a good value. I think that having Python is a neat feature. I have strong opinions about calculators in general, and have owned a wide range of Casio, HP, TI, and even some old/niche ones that only real calcul…

I think your position is unrealistic for an education setting. You’re proposing working computers and smartphones for every desk and student. Computers and apps are not standardised at all. Disparity between them and compatibility issues are a massive contention when you have lots of people to educate. Not only that, even today here in the UK, not every student has a smartphone or a home computer so you’re instantly…

While students may need a calculator, I don't think they need a graphing calculator. It seems a silly expense when they already have a smartphone. At high school in the UK in 1990s we were expected to buy our own calculators. Only primary school had boxes of (non-scientific) calculators.

I bought a graphing calculator for A-level maths, but only needed the graphing functionality a handful of times. At university graphing calculators were banned in exams. Only the basic scientific FX-82 was allowed (which cost about £15 IIRC.)

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#89

Post by Buttons840 »

asciimov wrote: post #74
parsimo2010 wrote: post #9

Relative to other graphing calculators, I've always felt that Casio's offerings were a good value relative to TI- ever since TI captured the education market they stopped being cool and definitely stopped being a good value. I think that having Python is a neat feature. I have strong opinions about calculators in general, and have owned a wide range of Casio, HP, TI, and even some old/niche ones that only real calcul…

Graphing calculators solve a couple of problems: they are fairly standardized, equally capable, have a known cost, run a long while on AA batteries and probably most import they don't get on the internet. Phones, while more than computationally capable, aren't equally capable, have a battery life measured in hours, have access to the internet, and require software of an unknown cost and quality.

I also haven't found phone software that is as good as a TI-89 or HP Prime other than emulators of those calculators.

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#90

Post by nsajko »

colejohnson66 wrote: post #39
znpy wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With that said, we really need to let calculators go I honestly can't understand why hasn't anybody made a TI-compatible calculator, ideally with a clean-room-implementation OSS stack. It could probably get most of the TI market share, and be more exciting to use.

The biggest thing is ACT/SAT approval. If that’s what you need, check out NumWorks[0]. It works on both and is completely open source (down to the schematics). [0]: https://www.numworks.com/

It's source-available, not open-source. And the schematics sources are not available; but I don't think it would be very difficult to reinvent them, considering the number of parts is small.

On a lighter note, they make it very easy to hack on the calculator, it's written in C++ and in a Git repo at Github.

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