lap0530's Full Review: Sharp EL-531VB Scientific Calculator
How things have changed over the years! As a graduate student in the 1970s, I purchased a handheld calculator with an accumulating memory and square root key for my statistics courses. That calculator set me back about $80. Today, such a calculator can be found in the checkout line at Wal-Mart for about $3. I struggled with statistics and finally "got it" in about the fourth course, and that calculator helped me get through the computations.
In an ironic twist of fate, I needed once again--some twenty-eight years later--to purchase a calculator for another statistics course. This time, I was the stat professor rather than the student, and I found that a Sharp EL-531VB was available in my university bookstore for $12.95 (with a 10% discount for faculty).
Although certainly not as powerful as the graphing calculators like the TI-83, the EL-531VB has quite a few features for a calculator costing less than $20. Sharp's D.A.L. (direct algebraic logic) allows the user to enter equations and formulas directly as they appear, and with the appropriate use of parentheses, the EL-531VB will calculate the result correctly every time. The calculator boasts multi-line playback and 183 built-in functions.
The obvious trigonometric functions and memory are complemented by statistical functions for one and two variables. With a few clicks of the keys, the EL-531VB can calculate (and recall) the mean, sample and population standard deviations, and sums of squares for variables x and y, as well as the sum of the cross-products of x and y and the correlation coefficient. All the statistics I once had to calculate by hand were now calculated (and stored) automatically.
This very sharp calculator does have some drawbacks. The display is not backlighted, and under low lighting conditions, its display is very hard to read. In addition, the "manual of operations" for the calculator, just like the calculator itself, is not made in the U.S.A. The manual is nothing more than a single sheet with the various operations described, but not explained.
In its earlier iterations, this calculator had a cover that was attached to the body of the unit and with hinges could protect the keypad and then be swung back for calculations. This version has a detachable cover, which, although it does a very serviceable job of sliding onto the calculator's body, could easily be lost.
On balance, for less than $13, one could hardly go wrong with the Sharp EL-531VB.
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