Calculators you've had

[bandit957]

Calculators are cool.

The first calculator I can remember anyone in the family having was a brown Texas Instruments that my mom had. It had a red display and tiny digits. When a number overflowed, the display would blink. I don't even remember where she got it.

I had a toy calculator with Mickey Mouse on it, but the first real calculator I got was a Sharp that I got when I was in elementary school. When I had to take it to school in 8th grade, some kids broke it, but I fixed it. I still have this 40-year-old calculator. You can even use it with an adapter that plugs into the wall. I also had a small solar-powered calculator in 8th grade, but some kid smashed it and broke it for good.

I've had several scientific calculators in later years. One got ruined in the mid-'90s when a neighbor kid sprayed a hose into my apartment. I didn't have it for very long when this happened.

[Big John]

Did you have a HP calculator? It uses RPN and it generally you have to do things in reverse.

[bandit957]

Did you have a HP calculator? It uses RPN and it generally you have to do things in reverse.

I never had one of those.

[Scott5114]

I had a little collection of calculators going when I was a kid in the 1990s and early 2000s. None of them particularly stick in my mind.

Around 2000 or so, my dad gave me a "pocket computer" that could store phone numbers, had a calculator, and could run BASIC programs. Typing in anything remotely complex was a pain, though, since it only had a one-line LCD display and a very tiny keyboard. You also had to enter reserved words through function keys, i.e. you couldn't type P-R-I-N-T, you hit Fn-[something] that produced the keyword PRINT.

The first graphing calculator I had was a TI-82. I mostly played around with BASIC on it, since I got it before I had any classes that really required the use of a graphing calculator. When I did get into high school math classes that required a graphing calculator, my teacher was a big fan of the Sharp EL-9600c, since she considered TI's syntax interpreter to be lacking (a few demonstrations where reasonable-looking input gave wrong answers hammered home the point). So I got a Sharp EL-9600c, and later upgraded to an EL-9900.

I don't do anything with a graphing calculator anymore. But since I've graduated high school, I've had a Sharp EL-1801PIII adding machine on my desk. I find them easier to use than pocket calculators (i.e. I can ten-key quickly), and always knowing where the calculator is (just to the right of the mouse) is nice.

[dlsterner]

Back in 1974 or so, while in high school, I saved up my allowance for quite a while and picked up a Bowmar MX-50 calculator for (if I recall correctly) around $49, which was a decent chunk of change back in 1974.  Four functions (well five if you count percentage calculation).  Only about a fourth of my class actually owned a calculator - most of us in the "geek/nerd" category.  But still much better than using our slide rules in chemistry and physics classes.  Yes, learning how to use a slide rule was in the curriculum.  And I still have that calculator - but have no idea where the A/C adapter is.



During college (latter 1970's), I used a Texas Instrument SR-56.  It was one of the earliest programmable calculators, although there was no way to save your program - you had to retype it in every time you wanted to use it.  I also still have this one.


I have never owned a graphing calculator - once I got my degree I purchased my first computer (an Apple II+) and instead wrote BASIC programs to do graphing in its "high" resolution graphics.

[Ben114]

Since entering high school in 2018, I have used the TI-83 Plus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-83_series#TI-83_Plus) for calculations in multiple math and science classes over the years.

The use of a physical calculator is slowly becoming obsolete, as smartphones / other devices are far more popular to do quick, standard calculations. However, more complex calculations most likely require the use of a physical calculator.

Most people in my school have a similar calculator to me, due to the need to do more complex / programmable calculations, and due to the school's ban on smartphones in the classroom.

[Roadrunner75]

Did you have a HP calculator? It uses RPN and it generally you have to do things in reverse.

I have an old HP 48GX which uses RPN.  Kinda hard to go back to using a regular calculator or the app on my phone once you're used to entering the numbers first.  I don't really use it for any advance features or graphing though - just pretty much basic calculations at this point.

[kurumi]

When I was little, I had a beige 8-digit LED calc. Don't remember the brand, but I think it was not one of the familiar ones (TI, HP, Sharp, etc.). Might have been 4-function plus square root, but not trig or scientific.

Fun thing about it: when the battery got low, it would start freaking out. Flashing digits in odd places, characters out of the "Ghost in the Machine" album cover, and so on. It was like "all work and no play make Homer something something"

[Takumi]

I had 2 Texas Instruments graphing calculators over the years. My first was a TI-86, which I got in high school because it was cheaper than the newer TI-83 Plus and did more. In college I got a TI-89, which I still have to this day but never use it.

[amroad17]

A simple Casio 8 digit display, the Texas Instruments SR 56, and a solar powered simple Casio.

Now, my wife and I just use our phones.

[Road Hog]

I have a TI-30Xa that I still use to balance my checkbook. I've had it for close to 25 years and it still runs on the same battery.

[formulanone]

TI-34 that I bought for $16 back in 1990.

All solar, always works.

[SectorZ]

I wish I remember what I even had for calculators.

I did have a calculator watch for a few years. A few at least because 10 year old kids that spend hours outside are not a good mix with them.

Curious if anyone else still has one at a computer. Windows has had a built in computer for years, and at home or work I've always had a decent scientific calculator at my side to use when needed.

[hotdogPi]

I have a TI-84 Plus Silver Edition.

Now, I type things into the Google search bar (without pressing enter). It does calculations automatically, including those with units.

[OracleUsr]

I've had a few in my lifetime.  Growing up I used TI calculators, though I can't remember the model #'s of either of the ones I had.

I bought an HP 41-CV programmable my freshman year and it got stolen, or I think it did.  Probably just as well, as my engineering college was using the HP 28S and moving students towards the HP 48SX.  I got a 28S on loan for my differential equations class, but soon bought the 48SX instead when my co-op job actually paid me more than I needed to live on.

[bandit957]

Fun thing about it: when the battery got low, it would start freaking out. Flashing digits in odd places, characters out of the "Ghost in the Machine" album cover, and so on. It was like "all work and no play make Homer something something"

Speak & Spell would do this too.

[Mr. Matté]

Excluding all the el cheapo ones used through elementary school (only +-*/ and sqrt), I've had a couple of TI-30X IIs used since middle school and one I think dating from back then (beginning of the century) I still use for WFH purposes, a TI-89 Titanium bought junior year of high school (thus allowing me to solve calculus problems and then forcing me to borrow one of the school's TI-83s when it came time for tests), and a TI-36X Pro used exactly twice: for my FE exam, and then for my PE exam.

[bandit957]

I also remember a toy that was a flat, white square with blue rods that had arithmetic tables on them. This was in the 1970s.

[jeffandnicole]

Had several small, standard calculators, and loved playing on my dad's 10 key adding machine. But of the 2 I remember, one was a TI-82, and one was a small blue standard calculator they handed out with the CPA exam I took. That one I just saw recently, and 22 years later it still works!

[jmacswimmer]

I have a TI-84 Plus that I used all thru high school and college, and then I had to buy a TI-30X IIS specifically for the FE exam (courtesy of NCEES only allowing a select few calculators ).  I keep both at my desk at work now.

[Eth]

TI-34 that I bought for $16 back in 1990.

All solar, always works.

Yes! I remember having that one too.

Later on, when I got to high school, I got a TI-83. A couple years later, what I considered the grand prize, the TI-89. It still sits in the desk drawer where I'm typing right now, over 15 years later.

[1995hoo]

I remember having a TI that, overall, looked similar to the second one shown in dlsterner's post, although I think it was an accounting calculator and so didn't list the various trig functions seen on the one in the photo there. (It belonged to my dad and I more or less borrowed it and never gave it back after he got a printing calculator for himself.) This was some 35 years ago, so it's understandable why I don't remember the details.

I went through a lot of calculators over the years, many of them fairly basic ones. Some broke, others got lost, sometimes I just wanted a faster one. I really don't remember them other than that TI. I will note I never had a graphing calculator. Those were just starting to appear when I was in high school, they were expensive, only one or two people had them, and I took my final math class during my junior year of high school and was not required to take any math classes in college, so I never needed a graphing calculator.

I have no idea whether any of those old calculators are still around. Nowadays I tend just to use the calculator app on my iPhone or iPad (the latter a third-party app because Apple inexplicably doesn't include one) or my PCs, or in a pinch I may just ask Siri. If I need more detailed calculations or I need to see more history of the numbers I punched in (say because I expect I'll make a typo), I'll use Excel.

[formulanone]

I also had this as my first calculator for a few years; it apparently came with a workbook but I don't remember it. I think it's the only thing I've ever owned besides a clock radio which had a red LED display.

The Little Professor, courtesy of 3ryon at reddit:

[SEWIGuy]

I also had this as my first calculator for a few years; it apparently came with a workbook but I don't remember it. I think it's the only thing I've ever owned besides a clock radio which had a red LED display.

The Little Professor, courtesy of 3ryon at reddit:

This wasn't a calculator though right?  This was a quiz game.  Did it have a calculator function?

[US 89]

The first calculator I used for actual math was a TI-30X IIS scientific calculator, which I used for algebra 1 and geometry homework on occasion. Unfortunately, I could only use it on homework, because at the time I was not allowed to have a calculator in school. To do trig problems, I would have to use a printed table that gave the sine, cosine, and tangent values to three decimal places for every degree value from 0 to 90. And then I’d usually have to multiply that into some 2 or 3 digit number...by hand. If a problem involved pi, I’d have to use 3.14. It absolutely sucked. I lost way too many points on tests because of math errors from multiplying 4-digit numbers by 3-digit numbers by hand.

After that I was finally allowed to use a calculator in class, and I got a TI-84 Plus Silver Edition. It lasted me through high school, but during my first semester of college it started getting less reliable (batteries could randomly die, half of screen might not light up, etc). I still keep that one as a backup, but my primary calculator is now a TI-84 Plus CE.