The only thing I ever used a scientific calculator for was pretending to pass math class while programming Drug Wars line by line for my entire junior year, then playing it my entire senior year. The teachers thought I was REALLY into math while also really sucking at it.
this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2025
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The fact that you can and should enter a sequence of buttons to get a QR code to verify if your casio is in fact a casio is wild
I used an HP RPM calculator through college. It could do cool stuff like graphing and solving equations. Very helpful for an engineering student, not so helpful later in life. I used that calculator until about a year ago when it died (got about 35 years from it). I didn’t use the super fancy stuff anymore, but for a scientific calculator it was pretty solid.
So when it broke, I had to find a replacement for a device that I’ve used for my entire life. Needless to say, I was kind of picky. I tried emulators, and newer TIs, and there’s a bunch of knockoff crap like the article points to. Only one made me happy. A silly little iOS app “PCalc” (it has an icon of “42”). It was like $5, runs on my phone, and honestly I probably should have switched decades ago.
I’m not associated with that app or the author or anything, just a recommendation for anyone old and stubborn like me - I know I’m not alone here with calculator attachment issues :)
The best part about using an RPM calculator (I also had an HP) was that if someone asked if they could borrow it, I could tell them that if they call do 1+1 and get 2 on it, they could use it. No one ever was successful.
RPM is great though, it's so fast if you could quickly organize the order of operations.
You mean RPN, right? Reverse Polish Notation.
Lol yes. I knew what OP meant and assumed they were right and went with it.
Dear Lord I'm not the only one wondering what RPM stands for!!
I got used to RPN at University. Ever since, I literally struggle to do simple math with algebraic calculators, got an HP15X emulator in my phone, does all I need
Do ppl still use dedicated scientific calculators in the age of pocket computers?
Scientific calculators were some of the first pocket computers.
Does your pocket computer have physical buttons?
I suppose it could, if you wanted to carry a foldable USB or Bluetooth keyboard or keypad.
That's addressed in the video
The age of pocket computers ended with the Atari Portfolio. What we got now is the electronic form of Soma.
I got a V200, the successor of ti92. Best device ever, so much power in that brick. I never found something equivalent on computer, except maybe wolfram alpha.
I'm just sad I never had to really use it in my work. Only time it could have been useful, it was dead 😥.
There are emulators of a lot of old calculators online. Is this one yours?
Yep, that one. But if you don't use it everyday, you quickly forgot how it works ;)
I'm still rocking a ti89, only got to play around with the ti92 once. It had some cool programs back in the day. I can only imagine what the dev community is up to these days.
Some friends had the ti89. It has basically the same features. The ti92/V200 screens are larger, and have a full qwerty keyboard which make them much user firendly, but as I remember, firmware were similar.
Scientific calculators are an amazing invention that take pocket calculators from being merely basic arithmetic machines to being pocket computers that can handle everything from statistics to algebra.
I use the FOSS maxima on Linux and Android.
The Android version appears to be dead?!
The version on F-Droid works on my system.
checks
Looks like the F-Droid project hasn't seen a new Android build in a decade, and Maxima has seen updates, but...I mean, it's a pretty mature program. I have a newer version on desktop, but all the stuff I use was added in the first couple decades or so of its life.
EDIT: The git repo is here:
https://github.com/YasuakiHonda/Maxima-on-Android-AS
So I expect that if someone wanted to do builds of newer versions, they could.
But for perspective, the calculator that the article is talking about that the author liked is also a decade-old calculator.
I have a 991es but I only got it in uni because it was the only one allowed. Before that I had a TI 30X IIS. Loved that Casio. The new one looks like a pain in the ass to use.