You probably don't need a graphing calculator

Graphing calculators can draw graphs; scientific calculators can’t — that’s the real difference, and it matters much less than most people think.

A scientific calculator does the math: trig, logs, exponents, fractions, basic statistics. It’s fast, cheap ($10-20), and lasts through high school and most college math. A graphing calculator does all that too, but adds a pixel screen big enough to plot functions, zoom in on intersections, trace curves, and on fancier models, do symbolic algebra. That’s what the extra $100 buys you.

When does that screen actually matter? When a course explicitly requires it — usually pre-calculus, calculus, or certain standardized tests (check the