Wait... what?
Yes, become a friend with your calculator. And don't try to tell me you don't have any (calculator... I'm not questioning your status in terms of having friends).
I suppose you're here, reading this article because you need maths in your life right now, mostly likely for academic purposes. That means you're probably a student working towards some sort of exam. And that's why you need your own calculator and most of all, you need to know it. As you know your friends.
Knowing your calculator well (and getting the same type as required by your school for your maths exams) is one of the key tricks to boost your confidence while taking maths exams. And guarantee you that your heartwarming relationship with your calculator will help you to achieve better results.
Do you know how to switch degrees and radians on your calculator? I'm not talking now about the fact you should know what those terms mean, how to define them and when to use them. Do you know where π [pi] is (yeah, that weird number used for calculating circumference and area of circles and for plenty of other stuff), where the button for combination numbers is and how to type on your calculator other powers than squared and cubed? How to swap results from decimals to fractions and vice versa? How does your calculator display periodic numbers? Do you know how to program it to get the results in the form you prefer? And what is the weird 10x or EXP...?
Let's have a look at the exams you're going to take in the nearest future and ask yourself, do I know my calculator and can I do all the necessary magic with it? If not, I'll ask you, do you think you'll have time during your exams to find out all the stuff you don't know yet about your calculator?
Well, that's exactly why you need to become a friend with your calculator.
P.S.: Make sure your new maths friend will not die during exams. It may sound weird, but I was taking some of my exams with a tiny screwdriver and spare batteries in my pocket as a result of an unexpected death of current batteries that occurred once in the past (luckily not during exams at that time). A very kind school janitor helped me to change the batteries back then (he had the perfectly fitting screwdriver and even spare batteries - what a star!) But better not rely on kind janitors during your exams.
On the other hand, I guess you might get a spare calculator in such a case.
Well, I like my calculator and don't want to be in a situation where I'd have to use another one - what if it is a different model and we will not be friends (just yet) with that one?!
