The four calculators are:
1. The TI-36X Pro (scientific calculator)
2. The Casio fx-115ES Plus (scientific calculator)
3. The Casio fx-991EX ClassWiz (scientific calculator)
4. The Casio fx-9750gii (graphing calculator)
The problem used for test:
B = 1.3271244e+20
C = 6.957e+08
D = 1.495978707e+11
Evaluate:
∫ (C, 0.999999D) 1 / √(2B(1/x − 1/D)) dx
This integral returns the amount of time, in seconds, for an object to fall to the sun's photosphere (one solar radius = C) starting from a distance of 1 astronomical unit (D), assuming that the sun and the object are initially at rest with respect to each other and are acted upon by no forces other than their mutual gravitational attraction. The variable B is the solar gravitational parameter.
TI-36X Pro
Answer: 5570898.581
Time to Solve: 90.4 sec
Casio fx-115ES Plus ← this calculator is being reviewed
Answer: 5570898.583
Time to Solve: 76.6 sec
Casio fx-991EX ClassWiz
Answer: 5570898.583
Time to Solve: 17.3 sec
Casio fx-9750gii
Answer: 5570898.583
Time to Solve: 4.9 sec
As you can see, the Texas Instruments device is a slow-poke. The TI-36X Pro costs anywhere from $19 to $30 on Amazon.
The Casio fx-991EX ClassWiz is the official (and substantial) Casio upgrade to the earlier Casio fx-115ES Plus. For moderately complicated numerical integration chores, the Casio fx-991EX is more than four times faster than its predecessor model. Furthermore, the Casio fx-991EX is more than five times faster than its ostensible competitor from Texas Instruments, the TI-36X Pro. The Casio fx-991EX sells at prices ranging from $14 to $36 on Amazon.
But the Casio fx-9750gii is more than three times faster than the Casio fx-991EX ClassWiz and is about 18 times faster than the TI-36X Pro. Reasonable prices on Amazon go from $30 to $37, but there are some sellers (that should be ignored) who are trying to gouge for more.
I have solved the indefinite integral analytically. Omitting the intermediate steps,
∫ 1 / √(2B(1/x − 1/D)) dx
= √[D/(2B)] { √(XD−X²) + D arctan[√(D/X−1)] }
When I used the calculators to solve the integral numerically, I had to avoid entering D itself for X, since that would cause an overflow error. When I use the upper limit of 0.999999D instead, the answer is 5577993.302993855, so all of the calculators' answers have relative errors of about −0.001272.
I feel like Casio should be paying me for the amount of talking I do about this calculator. First off, I've owned the fx-115ES for about 2 years now and love it. I love it so much that I've not only recommended it to almost anyone who will listen to me, but bought it for two of my friends for their birthdays. When I found out there was a PLUS version of this calculator I was more excited than any one person should be about a calculator, and I didn't even know what the plus stood for. Turns out it's a bunch of small things that us math majors really appreciate; lines over repeating decimals, gcd and lcm, remainders (for modular arithmetic), and a bit more memory than its predecessor. BUT IT'S PREDECESSOR WAS ALREADY AMAZING, so basically this calculator is amazing plus.
For you calculus students out there that need a scientific calculator for exams: this calculator solves systems of linear equations (with up to 3 variables), quadratics, cubics, does matrix inversion, addition/subtraction and multiplication, gives exact answers (sin(pi/4)=sqrt(2)/2), and is just in general a super easy calculator to use. I've been pimping Casio out for a while now, but seriously, for $15 this is the BEST investment you can make in your math education.
UPDATE 11/12/2017
This calculator still works like a dream and beats everything on the market. As a math instructor I've seen probably every scientific calculator out there- certainly all of the TI's- and not one of them even comes close. One of the most important features I didn't mention in my original review was its ability to evaluate definite integrals and also derivatives at a point! That's a crazy feature for a scientific calculator!! I feel just as passionate today about this calculator as I did 5 years ago- do yourself a favor and buy it!
Absolutely wonderful calculator. I originally ordered this calculator as a backup to my TI-36x Pro for the California PE Survey exam, and ended up using this solely because of the degree/minute/second (°'") button. Instead of having to scroll to a menu to find the degree symbol, then minute symbol or second symbol, like in the TI-36x pro, it's all incorporated into that one button and it also converts to decimal degrees if you'd like. Here's an example:
Convert 5°17'36" to decimals.
On the TI-36x Pro: Enter 5 -> MATH -> DMS -> 1, 17 -> MATH -> DMS -> 2, 36 -> MATH -> DMS -> 3. Calculator spits out the answer = 5.29.
On the Casio Fx-115 ES PLUS: 5 -> °'", 17 -> °'" , 36 -> °'", then press °'" one more time. Answer = 5.29.
That °'" button saves so much time!
Besides my rant about this little button, the calculator performs all the calculations very quickly, and is pretty fast at solving iterative formulas once you learn how to do it in the manual. The only caveat of this calculator are that it's a bit too lightweight. When you start punching the numbers quickly, the calculator starts sliding. I often have to hold the calculator in my hand to ensure I'm entering the numbers correctly. The buttons are also a bit flimsy but its more of an aesthetic than functional issue. Still, you can't go wrong with this calculator! Highly recommended.
So glad I purchased this! I was using a TI previously but found out I was getting 1 in 10 questions wrong on my exams because the keys weren't always registering the number in the calculation. These buttons have been reliable and I've been able to work fast without any errors. They do all the functions I needed for trigonometry and chemistry. I had classmates borrowing my calculator at times because they realized how reliable mine was and how easy the buttons were to understand and use. If I needed to supply one calculator to a college student, this would be the one I'd pick. Now if they need to take calculus, you'll probably want to look for a graphing calculator, but until then, this is all a student needs!
An amazing calculator for the price. Does integral and derivative approximations, arbitrary base logarithms, and summations. It can generate random integers in a range and calculate mean, median, and standard deviation for a set of numbers. It can also row-reduce matrices up to 3x3 in size. It also solves quadratic equations and some other equations for you. I'm sure there's a bunch more, but this is the stuff I have used it for thus far. Pretty cool stuff for the price.
Update 04/25/2019: Literally still works perfectly for all functions. This calculator has gotten me through an entire CS bachelor's degree. It's never failed to deliver for any of my classes from stats, physics 1&2, linear algebra, calc 1-3, some CS courses, etc. Just to add to my previous list of functions, it also does calculations and conversions in various bases (Decimal, Octal, Hex). You can literally type in and do math on numbers in hexadecimal. Wonderful. Truly a great scientific calculator---the most function-filled one I've seen for the price. Whoever was making the design decisions for this calculator should be happy with themselves.
Feature Product
- Natural textbook display shows expressions and results exactly as they appear in the textbook
- Over 280 functions, including fractions, statistics, complex number calculations, base arithmetic, linear regression, standard deviation, computer science, and polar-rectangular conversions
- Multi-replay function allows you to backtrack step-by-step through calculations, where you can edit expressions and recalculate answers
Description
CASIO fx-115ES Plus Scientific Calculator
Casio's most advanced scientific calculator to date, has been designed and engineered for easy operation at any level. The Natural Display and enhanced features like displaying root forms of equations, finding derivatives, product notation templates, and advanced inequality functionality, makes the fx-115ES Plus extremely versatile and the perfect choice for high school and college students alike.
Suggested Courses
The fx-115ES Plus is designed to support all users in the following courses:
- All General Mathematics courses
- Pre-Algebra
- Algebra I & II
- Statistics
- Pre-Calculus
- Trignonmetry
- Chemistry
- Physics
- Engineering
Exam Allowance
The CASIO fx-115ES Plus scientific calculator is permitted for use on the PSAT/NMSQT, SAT and ACT college entrance exams, AP tests, and NCEES exams.
Hardware Features
The fx-115ES Plus is intuitive and easy to use as you progress through your coursework. It has two-way power, "Solar Plus with Battery Back-up", so you're always ready!
Large Display
Offers a large, multi-line display that allows for important multi-replay functionality.
Functionality & Key Features
Some of the functionality you will find in the fx-115ES Plus includes:
- Natural textbook display shows expressions and results exactly as they appear in the textbook
- Over 280 functions, including fractions, statistics, complex number calculations, base arithmetic, linear regression, standard deviation, computer science, and polar-rectangular conversions
- List-Based STAT Data Editor
- Table Function
- Matrix and Vector Calculations
- 40 Metric Conversions
- Multi-replay function allows you to backtrack step-by-step through calculations, where you can edit expressions and recalculate answers
If you require a handy scientific calculator to arrive at numerical results quickly, look no further than this this little gem. Everything you need to do the most common types of calculations is right at your fingertips in an intuitive and convenient arrangement. This is not a computer algebra system or equation visualization package, it is designed for producing real results for discrete computations.
As an engineer who also owns graphing calculators, I really appreciate this little marvel. This is a compact, lightweight, and inexpensive unit that you can take with you anywhere. A handy sidekick for CAD to solve for angles and various things. The finite integration is well done and easy to use.
The features of this calculator are legion. It deserves my highest recommendation.
I go to college for Engineering, and I can only use this specific calculator in my classes. This calculator is affordable priced, and performs every function that a reasonable, educated person should need to perform given that they are able to solve more complex functions by hand. If you are looking for a calculator capable of solving complex functions and systems of equations, this will not do that. However, if you are looking for a great mid tier calculator, this is perfect.
I am a mechanical engineering student and am required to use an FE-approved calculator for all my classes. I love this one for the matrix functionality (great for linear interpolation!), quick decimal-to-fraction conversion, and scientific, engineering, and decimal display modes. I wish it had a graphing function, but since that's not allowed on the FE exam, I'm pretty happy with this calculator. I recommend watching YouTube videos about it to learn all the cool tricks you can use to get more out of it.
As my thermodynamics professor exclaimed when describing this calculator, "all the math you can do for only about $17!"
I've used the older FX-115ES (NOT the PLUS) version for years as an engineering student. It has a lot of functionality and is more than sufficient for most courses. It's good to learn to perform calculations by hand instead of relying on a calculator, but this one has a surprising number of functions. It will work with matrices up to 3x3 to find determinants, inverse, transpose, REF and RREF, which is useful in linear algebra. It will solve definite integrals, but some take a while to process. I compared the FX-115ES PLUS and the FX-115ES to solve the definite integral of e^(x^3) with respect to x, from 0 to 6. They both took about 2 minutes to calculate this. If you need a powerful equation or integral crunching calculator you might look at an HP, TI, or higher end Casio. This one is capable of computing a lot of things, but it's not going to be anywhere near as fast as calculators that cost 10x as much.
It has all the usual trig functions easily accessible. Switching from fractions to decimals is easy. The way the input works it's very simple to see what you're typing in.
The reason I bought this version FX-115ES PLUS is because it will do REF and RREF matrix functions, which the old non-PLUS version will not do, and it's supposed to be faster than the older non-PLUS version. For the low, low price this calculator is the best scientific one on the market. It was enough to get me through Chemistry, Calc 1-3, engineering physics 1 and 2, and a number of other classes. For higher end math I use Wolfram Alpha to check my work because it's most likely faster than any calculator out there, but that's a totally different beast. For a calculator with a lot of functions this one is great.
Note that it will NOT graph functions. It does have a table function, but if you need to graph functions you need something else. Considering that no graphing calculator is anywhere near fifteen bucks they're not really a fair comparison.
I like this calculator even more than my TI-89.
Try to find a calculator that has a log(base)(value) button ANYWHERE. This one has it.
Usually, on my TI-89, I have to type log(value) / log(base) to get the value I want. Here, I just type in the base where it's supposed to go!
Or try to find one that has a mode for converting between base 2, 8, 10, 16, etc very quickly and easily.
Or one that has all the scientific constants and conversions you could ever need, all easily at your fingertips.
All symbolic? With imaginary calculations? A button for polar input?
You have a button to switch from fractional values to decimal notation?
Holy smokes, it just simply blows my socks off. SO incredibly easy to use for things I do DAILY as an power systems engineer.
I used this calculator to pass my professional engineering exam, and cannot stress enough how much this saved my day.
My girlfriend asks to borrow it all the time for her exams in Chemistry (she's a biologist), since it has conversions for pressure measurements, etc, all the obscure stuff she doesn't want to keep on her exam notesheets.
Seriously buy this calculator, and just walk through the manual once, typing out the examples. I swear, it's like cheating, you will never go back to your old calculator.
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