Ode to the fx-991MS

A dog may be a shepherd’s best companion, a wallet is a bankers best friend, and a pen is a writer’s best tool. To an engineering student the calculator is what the dog, wallet, and pen are to their respective owners.

The journey began sometime late in high school when I needed a new calculator. I was having trouble with statistics and noticed a new calculator on the shelves that promised to do statistics, matrices, and much more. It was the Casio fx-991MS, and it was love at first sight.

The Casio promised to be a lot more that what was mentioned on the box. It made my test, and exams easier in high school, and it proved to be just as effective during university.

I clearly remember an electrical circuits course we had during first year. Imaginary numbers were a pain in the ass to do arithmetic with, and phasors were things we had to deal with in physics and circuits. Of course I didn’t have a problem with all those imaginary numbers thanks to my Casio. When the class discovered the abilities of the Casio, I estimate over 80% of the class trashed their Sharp, Texas Instruments, and whatever other crappy calculator they had and made the move to the fx-991MS… doesn’t that just roll off the tongue?

The Casio became the talk of the class (I’m not kidding) and those with Casios would show off the abilities of the calculator to the non-believers. I have to say that the non-believers truly missed out on many time saving tricks including:

• Solving equations with 2 and 3 unknowns
• Solving order 2 and 3 equations
• Imbedded BEDMAS rules
• Calculating the inverse of a 3X3 matrix
• Conversion between base 10, binary, hex, and oct
• Tons of statistical functions
• Ability to type equations and quickly perform iterations
• Integration using Simpson’s rule (although this one take about a minute to process)

There are other features of course, but the first few are by far the most time saving, especially in an exam situation.

My Casio will travel to work with me, and the second one (I have 3..you know, for emergencies and such) will stay on my desk. Every now and then I plan on giving it a little work out, so it stays sharp, so to speak.

For the makers of the fx-991MS I say thank you, using the calculator has been a pleasure. The Casio fx-991MS will always be my favourite calculator.