› ›

I like my graphing calculator a lot...

Princess AlicePrincess Alice
in General
...but at the same time I can't help feeling like a sucker for paying $100 in 2009 for a device that, even then, had gone basically untouched aside from firmware updates for 10 years.

It's even got a bloody button cell battery to keep the data saved when you take the AAAs out. Flash memory is a thing that exists! The backup battery was dinosaur shit even in 2009!

Comments

  • Imipolex GImipolex G
    Touch the cow. Do it now.
    leave Nintendo out of this
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    well what makes newer calculators better?
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Anonus said:

    well what makes newer calculators better?

    It's not really that I want fancy new features; it's more that I wish I paid less for the one I have.

    I mean, it does everything I need, and I've certainly gotten a lot of use out of it on exams and the like, but it's not really hardware that should be worth $100 today.
  • TreTre
    image
    if you don't have a ton of attachment to the device itself and don't have to worry about teachers getting pissy just sell it and use WabbitEMU instead

    what I ended up having to do until last semester was using that for all of my needs except for the quizzes and tests because of course we weren't allowed to use our EVERYTHING THINGS for those
  • TreTre
    image
    (can you tell I don't miss math? because it's true, I don't)
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    I use WabbitEMU when I'm doing homework and such, but I need the physical calculator for when I take exams. Because I don't wanna have to do linear algebra by hand. :P
  • TatterhoodTatterhood
    I don't think I've ever taken an exam where graphing calculators were allowed.

    (I'm not an engineering student, of course.)
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Most classes I've taken allow a TI-83 or TI-84 on exams, though the actual graphing function gets less useful in classes like mechanical engineering.

    Oddly enough, when I took calc 2, they didn't allow ANY calculators on exams. That's the only college math course I've taken with that policy.
  • TatterhoodTatterhood
    edited 2016-02-02 04:45:08
    Around here calculators are never allowed in math courses. I've had a few non-math courses (physics, chem, econ) where scientific calculators were allowed, but never graphing.
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    What kind of graphing calcy do you have?

    I think the TI-89 is the best.

    (The second c in "calcy" is hard.)
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    I have a TI-83 Plus.

    TI-89 wasn't allowed in any of my math courses because it can do symbolic calculations.
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Tatterhood said:

    Around here calculators are never allowed in math courses. I've had a few non-math courses (physics, chem, econ) where scientific calculators were allowed, but never graphing.

    The reasoning, I guess, is that if you're being tested on algebra or trig or calculus or whatever, it's sensible not to make you do all the numeric calculations and arithmetic by hand, since it's assumed you already know how to add and multiply numbers.
  • BeeBee
    edited 2016-02-02 18:17:37
    My calc class would do tests in two parts.  First part was no calculator for process solving, then he'd collect those and pass out the second part that allowed (sometimes required) them for practical-use problems, because you generally don't want to run Newton's Method or axial rotations etc. by hand.
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    Central Avenue said:

    I have a TI-83 Plus.


    TI-89 wasn't allowed in any of my math courses because it can do symbolic calculations.
    Oh, they actually did this?

    Dang.
  • BeeBee
    edited 2016-02-02 19:34:08
    Yep.  89 can straight-up solve derivatives, infinite sums, integrals, Taylor expansions, what-have-you.

    My teacher actually liked that they could do this, so he refused to ban them outright because he'd rather have seen us use it to backward-engineer stuff.
  • TatterhoodTatterhood
    edited 2016-02-02 19:34:57
    Central Avenue said:

    Tatterhood said:

    Around here calculators are never allowed in math courses. I've had a few non-math courses (physics, chem, econ) where scientific calculators were allowed, but never graphing.

    The reasoning, I guess, is that if you're being tested on algebra or trig or calculus or whatever, it's sensible not to make you do all the numeric calculations and arithmetic by hand, since it's assumed you already know how to add and multiply numbers.
    I'd hope that a course where calculators are disallowed wouldn't be asking for numeric answers, though I guess that might not always be true.
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    edited 2016-02-02 19:39:28
    Well when I was a student:
    * graphings that don't have an outright keyboard are allowed for calculator portion of AP calculus tests (i.e. 89 allowed, 92 not allowed), but parts of the test are always no calculators
    * individual tests in math competitions: i think either calculators were not allowed, or only scientifics were allowed
    * team events in math competitions: graphing calculators allowed.  Make sure someone on your team has a TI-89 and he/she is well-trained in typing very, very quickly into it.
    * interschool tests in math competitions: everything is allowed.  that's because everything goes.  (non-math questions included, as well as insane weirdness.)
    * AMC 10 or 12: I don't remember.
    * AIME: I think graphing calculators are allowed, but the questions are so advanced and weird that they're not likely to be all that useful anyway.  I mean, when your TI-89 hangs on your solve request...
    * Florida Association of Mu Alpha Theta: I don't remember but I think graphing was allowed
    * Continental Calculus: I don't remember but I think graphing was allowed
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    Tatterhood said:

    Central Avenue said:

    Tatterhood said:

    Around here calculators are never allowed in math courses. I've had a few non-math courses (physics, chem, econ) where scientific calculators were allowed, but never graphing.

    The reasoning, I guess, is that if you're being tested on algebra or trig or calculus or whatever, it's sensible not to make you do all the numeric calculations and arithmetic by hand, since it's assumed you already know how to add and multiply numbers.
    I'd hope that a course where calculators are disallowed wouldn't be asking for numeric answers, though I guess that might not always be true.
    My observation is that for those sections that ask for numeric answers and don't allow calculators, the answers tend to be pretty clean -- one sign that you're going down the wrong path is generally when you feel the need to come up with messy numerical answers and there's no way to simplify or symbolically solve them.
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    When I took the one calculus course that didn't allow calculators, there were two types of test/quiz questions:

    (a) questions that asked for numeric answers, but were carefully written so the answer would be a simple integer or fraction, or
    (b) questions that asked us to set up how  to solve a problem but specified that we didn't have to simplify it to a numeric answer

    Which is good, because who fucking memorizes factorials? 2! or 4! are easy enough, but 7! or 9!?
  • KlinotaxisKlinotaxis
    kill living beings
    working it out on paper wouldn't be too hard, though.

    anyway whatever off-brand calculator i had could solve systems of linear equations as well as something for arbitrary equations, which were very helpful.
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    edited 2016-02-02 20:01:38
    I received a Casio graphing calculator once.

    I think I gave it away to someone else as I didn't figure out how to use it.

    It is sort of a problem how much TI has a monopoly on the calculator market.
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Klinotaxis said:

    working it out on paper wouldn't be too hard, though.

    Well, no, but it'd be needlessly time-consuming for a 55-minute exam.
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Re: calculators on exams: my mechanics professor actually designs our exams with the intent that we'll use the matrix function on the graphing calculator to do linear algebra, because there's not enough time to solve systems of 5-6 equations by hand.
  • BeeBee
    edited 2016-02-10 05:25:14
    Heh.  I did have to do those by hand, or at least exhaustively show work up till plugging in numbers (if any).  Of course, the exams for classes like that were usually only a small handful of problems, and the ones where it got really involved like 400-level classical mechanics or E&M were like, "pick 3 of these 5, and anything beyond that is extra credit".
  • eriophora ziaeriophora zia
    I have cut a caper with the dancing mad god
    We were never taught to do them by hand back in high school, which sort of disappointed me at the time. Even if we weren't tested extensively, I would have appreciated an explanation and maybe some practice homework problems that weren't worth many points...



Sign In or Register to comment.