What is the best calculator for surveying due to DMS

[USACEOfficer]

Hi all what is your opinion on the best calculator for surveying particularly due to the degree minutes seconds aspect of angles. I have the ti 36x pro and it is too slow for dms, the casio fx 115es plus is pretty fast with dms the only issue I have with it is that it only stores the last answer whereas the ti 36x can store and renter multiple old answers.

Does anyone know a good hybrid calculator that has the dms speed of the casio ,but can store multiple entries and reuse them like the ti 36 can ?

 

[Guest]

TI-89 is very useful for the surveying exam. It is one of the few graphing calculators that does DMS well and stores the previous answers. the surveying course from CPESR also recommends this and have tutorials on it. The only one that does faster DMS calculations is the casio ones like you said, but they dont store answers that well. 

 

[USACEOfficer]

TI-89 is very useful for the surveying exam. It is one of the few graphing calculators that does DMS well and stores the previous answers. the surveying course from CPESR also recommends this and have tutorials on it. The only one that does faster DMS calculations is the casio ones like you said, but they dont store answers that well. 

Yeah the casio is extremely fast with the dms, I have gotten to the point to do the conversion in my casio and punch the decimal degrees back into my ti so I can look at old answers. Ill look into the 89 as well.

 

[leggo PE]

It's been a while since I took the seismic and surveying exams (I took them in 2016), but I have the Casio fx-115ES PLUS and it is my go-to calculator! I think I used it for those exams because it was what I was using to study for the P.E. exam at the time, as well. I didn't have an issue with how many answers it can store, and the calculator I have can store two answers, the previous answer and the one before that. I don't know when I've really needed more than that, and it worked for me for the surveying exam back in 2016. I would think the ability to handle degrees-minutes-seconds fast would be more important than how to call back multiple past answers, as time is really your enemy with the surveying exam -- at least it was for me, with my structural engineering background.

 

[USACEOfficer]

It's been a while since I took the seismic and surveying exams (I took them in 2016), but I have the Casio fx-115ES PLUS and it is my go-to calculator! I think I used it for those exams because it was what I was using to study for the P.E. exam at the time, as well. I didn't have an issue with how many answers it can store, and the calculator I have can store two answers, the previous answer and the one before that. I don't know when I've really needed more than that, and it worked for me for the surveying exam back in 2016. I would think the ability to handle degrees-minutes-seconds fast would be more important than how to call back multiple past answers, as time is really your enemy with the surveying exam -- at least it was for me, with my structural engineering background.

Having used the 36x for all the other tests it allows you to go back to multiple answers very easily say I want to get the distance between two points I do the difference between x and then the difference between y, I can cleanly re add these numbers and square them and then get the sqrt easily. Whereas on the fx-115 I will need to remember my answers and do ans and preans, but say I had an error in between it would mess this up. It's just not as smooth as the ti, but damn is not fast with dms angles. 

 

[leggo PE]

Oh, I forgot, on the Casio fx-115ES plus, you can also store answers to letters (A-F, X, Y, and M). It's not too difficult, and has never really been a function I've used, but it does give you more storage capability. You don't have the ability to scroll back through a bunch of answers, but you do have the ability to scroll back through a bunch of equations, as long as the calculator hasn't been turned off.

I also think you could write down answers, which is likely what I did. Honestly, when I was doing the surveying exam, I don't remember having all that much time to go back to problems I had skipped, and if they were super complicated (which there were at least a handful), I would just guess.

If you have a calculating error, that's not the calculator's problem, it's the user's issue. Not trying to be trite, but I don't see how the TI calculator is that much better for the surveying exam. I think the DMS capability of the Casio is the most important aspect.

 

[Jbray241]

I wouldn't bother trying to use the DMS function. Just do the math each time. Once you have it committed to muscle memory its faster than fiddling with calculator menus.

For instance if you want to convert 41°29'58" to decimal, type: 41+29/60+58/3600=41.4994.

Or if you want to convert 41.4994 to DMS: 

D=41.

41.4994-41=.4994.

ans*60=29.964 which means M=29

ans-29=.964

ans*60=57.84 which means S=58

 

[Calicivil]

I liked the hp prime has a DMS button by just pushing 2nd. Has a triangle calculator for law of sines and cosines to be done really fast. Excel calculator to help with double meridian method and silver function for the northing and wasting intersection problems.

 

[Assistant to the RM]

I wouldn't bother trying to use the DMS function. Just do the math each time. Once you have it committed to muscle memory its faster than fiddling with calculator menus.

For instance if you want to convert 41°29'58" to decimal, type: 41+29/60+58/3600=41.4994.

Or if you want to convert 41.4994 to DMS:

D=41.

41.4994-41=.4994.

ans*60=29.964 which means M=29

ans-29=.964

ans*60=57.84 which means S=58

I use a TI-30X IIS as my daily driver and did not want to learn/acclimate to something different for the surveying exam, even though I probably could've borrowed a TI-89. I agree with the first part of this statement, especially for adding multiple angles. Say I was adding 41°29'58" + 11°35'43". I would just enter 41 + 11 + (29+35)/60 + (58+43)/3600 = 53.09472222. But to convert that to DMS, I find the DMS function on the TI-30X to be much quicker than the manual math, it is simply ANS->DMS. We do use some basic math screening tests for engineering applicants at work, and I want to make sure they can do manual DMS conversions with a basic calculator though.

I took the CPESR course for CA Surveying, and he does really push the TI-89. I can see a lot of benefits from the larger screen and multiple recall feature from previous answers, but I did not find the DMS conversions to be very quick. It was some type of "2nd + Math + 2 + 8" shortcut, and I found the Ans->DMS function of the TI-30X to be very fast and easy to find.

The most important calculator advice is to pick what you're comfortable with, either your daily driver or if you do want to use a different calculator for the exam, make sure you are using it all throughout studying and practice problems, to make sure you are fast with it. After a few practice exams I considered swapping my spare TI-30X for a Casio that had a solver function since there were a few quadratic equations to solve on the practice exams, but I did not find the DMS and other trig functions as quick as what I was used to, so decided to keep a spare TI instead. I decided if I got to a point where I needed to solve a quadratic equation, I would simply plug in each of the 4 multiple choices for X, since it is a multiple choice exam. Not the quickest way to solve but it was a trade-off I was willing to make.

 

[Penguineer]

Bring two calculators, one for dms (i really like the fx 115 plus from Casio which is a single button) and another that you program with equations (i brought a ti-83 plus). Programming equations for closed and for open traverses, various areas, etc, was a huge help in time savings.
This is even more true for seismic, when basic base shear and floor base shear are really a matter of rote, but you need to check which equation you want, and waste precious minutes on something that is not about understanding concepts, but about punching lots of numbers in correctly. Bringing a 6+ minute problem down to less than a minute, particularly when there are usually more than one of that type of problem is super helpful