Suitable for Secondary School and Beyond (Casio FX 83 MS)

Member Name: Midrange

Product:	Casio FX 83 MS
Date:	06/08/08 (163 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 10 digit displlay, shows and stores calculation history, battery life of years

Disadvantages: Not exactly pocket-sized...

I have used the Casio MS FX (in some form or other) for well over 11 years. Indeed, the MS85 FX is the officially approved standard calculator for the University of Southampton - so clearly a trusted machine!

As you would expect, it is capable of all the basic mathematical operations (add, subtract, multiply, divide) along with what I think of as "secondary school" functions (trigonometric functions, standard deviation, powers, standard form) - that is, the kind of things you have to learn for your GCSE Maths!

As a physics graduate, I can vouch that this calculator has been of invaluable help to me. Exponentials, manipulations of standard form, manual calculations of Taylor expansions - the calculator can easily handle it all. It has a ten digit display and handily shows the last calculation you performed at the top of the screen. For example, the screen may read:

2 + 4 =
6

The calculator also "remembers" all the calculations you have performed in one sitting and you can easily scroll through them using the directional pad at the top of the machine.

There are several modes to operate the calculator - engineering mode (uses Gradians), Trig mode (radians), Stats mode (for data entry) and many more that I honestly don't know what are for!

You can store figures / operations in the internal memory, making iterative processes easier to manage. The calculator can calculate figures to an accuracy of 12 decimal places - which is, at degree level physics, all the accuracy you realistically need.

I was forced to replace my first Casio MS when I started my GCSEs. That was 2002. The battery still works. When I went to University I was (again) forced to replace the calculator (due to University regulations). So I now have two identical calculators (!) both in full working order... well, one has a dolphin stamped on the back!

Summary: Excellent scientific calculator with wide range of features.