Casio fx-82B
In 1987 Monkseaton High School sold me my first proper calculator – the Casio fx-82B. The very latest in GCSE level calculators, sleek and stylish, with its own clip-on hard case. That line of red trim across the top, the contrast of the orange AC and C buttons against the black borders and silver face plate, the lack of physical on/off slider that made the fx82 look so very dated. The smooth action of the ‘off’ button has to be pressed to be believed and is far removed from the rough feel of a modern Casio.
I customised mine – not in any permanent way, but if you took it apart you could swap the buttons round. I rearranged sin, cos and tan, interchanged the close brackets / open brackets buttons, mixed up the +-÷× buttons. Gangly, bassoon playing, maths loving 15 year old boys are not generally considered ‘cool’ but I like to think my custom fx-82B helped buck that trend!
It went everywhere with me. GCSE, on into A-level maths and further maths. On to a maths degree. The buttons restored to their rightful places now, all except that cheeky brackets button swap. Mine had a sticker on the back saying ‘approved for examinations by Sheffield university’. I had an early Casio graphical calculator (the fx7000GA) but that was banned by the university so never had as much use as my trusty fx-82B.
The one in the picture isn’t mine. I found it, unloved in a cupboard when I started my current job 10 years ago. It still works, but has seen better days. Someone has scribbled over the word ‘Casio’, not knowing that they could hide it’s name but never take it’s pride. There is also a rude word scratched into the metal. It’s position suggesting that the unhappy student never quite believed what they were hearing about hyperbolic functions. My fx-82B was lent to a student during my first year of teaching in Keighley, never to be returned. If you attended school in Keighley in 1996 and still have the calculator I lent you I’d love to hear from you. Just so long as you didn’t scratch any rude words into it…..
mathsdave's calculator riot 