Pocket Calculator

I just acquired a Casio fx-102 (Reddit r/calculators link) calculator – a device rooted firmly in the days when the display illuminated without a backlight such that it could be read at night. So you can’t see the buttons, so what?!

Buttons.

A Casio fx-102 calculator resting on its slip case. The display reads 5318008 - something familiar to anyone who's ever turned a calculator upside-down.
A Casio fx-102 calculator resting on its slip case. The display reads 5318008 – something familiar to anyone who’s ever turned a calculator upside-down.

And it’s not exactly pocketable, it’s wi-iiide. And sadly it does not play a little melody when pressing down a special key. So much for me trying to fashion an easy link to the Kraftwerk song (from 1981).

Ok, it has a 12-digit green LED display and it’s quite frankly awesome. The input method is straightforward for most people (it’s not RPN). It’s old-school operand-operator-operand… and there’s no computer algebra system, no brackets, no built-in constants apart from pi (and e), no persistent history or memories…

Speaking of memories…

My dad bought our family’s first pocket calculator in the 1970s – also a Casio, also with a green LED. I bought Casio calculators until the late 1980s, at which time TI and HP…

…so anyway, this, the new-to-me fx-102, is from 1976.

It’s 50 this year.

Fifty!

Happy Birthday to you… 🎵