Casio calculator due retirement

[Scoby_Beasley]

My company very generously donated a calculator to me in 1987, just after they took the sliding balls on wire off but before they could do calculus.
On opening the back at work today I realised it still had the original two "AA" batteries in the back after seventeen years.
Is this a record ?
Or is it still a calculator (arf arf) ????

 

[AdamW]

My 8 year old Texas Instruments Ti-85 graphical calculator still has the same 4 AAA batteries I put in it in 1999, but they aren't the originals.

Perhaps 17 year old batteries in a calculator are a sign that you haven't been working hard enough to drain them!

 

[kendor]

after reading this i have dug out a sinclair cambridge calculator i used to use it's still boxed and the PP3 is the original inside it and guess what it works still! I'm trying to find the old scientific calculator i bought from Shoppertunities( Shepherds Bush) in the 70's it was a really great calculator to use and got me through all my electrical courses it was one of the first to offer all the scientific functions, i wonder if it still works?

 

[pipme]

I had a little Cambridge in the '70's had either single or dual memory, not sure.

Just dug out a real old Dinasour !! Commodore P50 scientific Programmable calculator, and the manual !!
Could store a 24 key-stroke program.
Some of the functions still work ... Just inserted battery from smoke alarm ..... 1980' ish I think, but not sure. From Boots Chemist !!

Ok for working out the 'set aside' down the pub !!
P

 

[securespark]

Are they the CASIO brand? They were chuffing good.

I have an fx-570cv with original batteries, bought by my ex (and deceased) wife in 1989, that also has original batteries? Casio made 'em good......

Actually, I trust Casio watches, too. Cheap, but not too cheerful....

 

[lisap]

I have a sharp scientific calculator EL-506P which Ive had since about 1986 which still works on its original batteries!
By the way does anyone remember how to use the scientific bit of their calculator after leaving school!! It was the must have item but I havent a clue what half the buttons do now!

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

Are they the CASIO brand?

Yes they are, I'm now throwing them at brick walls and still the b*gg*rs won't die

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

By the way does anyone remember how to use the scientific bit of their calculator after leaving school!! It was the must have item but I havent a clue what half the buttons do now!

It's logic Jim, but not as we know it

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

Perhaps 17 year old batteries in a calculator are a sign that you haven't been working hard enough to drain them!

I do try (being a grumpy ole fart) to use the most powerful computer known to man..........me brain !!! Sometimes malfunctions,, usually on a Saturday night

 

[AdamW]

By the way does anyone remember how to use the scientific bit of their calculator after leaving school!! It was the must have item but I havent a clue what half the buttons do now!

Now, I have a theory on this. Just as teenagers have always been rowdy and rude (despite what people say about "their day" ) people get better at mental arithmetic and working on paper as they get older. Believe me, even in 100 years when computers are telepathic artificial intelligence devices that do all the hard work to give us time to ponder the meaning of life, anyone over the age of 30 will still use paper and pencil to add up. And they will still tell their kids "Don't they teach long multiplication at school anymore?!".

I use all the fun stuff on my graphical calculator still. 90% of the time for work, the other 10% working out equations to spell rude words on a graph.

 

[AdamW]

I do try (being a grumpy ole fart) to use the most powerful computer known to man..........me brain !!! Sometimes malfunctions,, usually on a Saturday night

Would that be after you have reached a state of advanced refreshment?

They say the brain is the most powerful computer, and it still is. But despite the fact that your skull is pretty hard, you wouldn't bang nails in by headbutting them! And a finger would be great for stirring coffee, but you wouldn't would you... (I do know someone who regularly used his mobile phone for this but he is a wally.)

Computers are great for certain things, quite often I write little programs just to solve simple but long-winded maths problems.

 

[pipme]

Recently written spreadsheet to best fit a circle to a set of data points in the plane, without recourse to vb ... a little use of solver is all !!
Quite pleased with that ... required to match results from cadd and does so.
Not bad, between mowing and The Plough.

P

 

[AdamW]

Ah, you see I use VBA for pretty much any little task. I hate using it, but you can make another analogy with hammering nails.

Suppose if you have the choice of banging in a nail with a spade or with your hand, you will choose the spade every time.

 

[pipme]

Could take a fair bit of work to emulate excel's 'Solver', pretty powerful tool.
P