Texas Instruments BA-35 Solar

The BA-35 Solar is a financial calculator targeted towards the business analyst (BA) consumer market, by the Texas Instruments Corporation. The BA series of calculators enjoyed a very long run of production and was extremely popular in the business world. The core functions of the BA series allow you to solve for any of the variables in a compound interest formula. This ability made it extremely useful to a wide range of people working within the financial sector.

Compound Interest Functions

• Number of periods (N)
• Interest rate (%i)
• Present Value (PV)
• Payment amount (PMT)
• Future Value (FV)

Solar Power

The purpose of the solar version was to save the owner form having to buy batteries as many people who worked in the financial sector had the calculator switched ON all the time. This function therefore made it extremely useful. The solar power cells were Anylite™, developed by TI to operate under any type of light.

There are plenty of user guides for this calculator; however, a quick look at the keyboard in the photograph gives a good indication of the functions that were available to the owner.

Warren Buffett’s Calculator

After reading the Buffettology book, there is a strong possibility that Warren may have used a calculator just such as this for making his calculations. However, it could be that he is just naturally skilled at selecting the right companies.

Keyboard

The keyboard has these generous size plastic keys, which are ideal for an executive with gorilla fingers.

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