Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

qz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 79 posts

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#31

Post by niftich »

Contrary to what the article offhandedly suggests ("there are some drawbacks to using an online calculator on tests -- it's trickier to spot cheating, for example"), I'd wager an online-only service can be locked down in ways that the TIs couldn't be, and with considerably less manual effort.

A common practice before standardized exams was resetting the RAM and the Archive, and deleting Apps; some school districts even use special Apps written for the calculator to enforce that it doesn't contain unauthorized code.

Meanwhile, server-side code running somewhere else produces a clean environment for every user.

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#32

Post by upofadown »

I am not sure exactly what is being implied here. Schools are still insisting that students have to use a TI-84 but that an app of some kind that emulates a TI-84 is OK?

Not sure how that makes sense if true. Do schools actually teach classes on how to use a calculator? Is this just another way that schools are not dealing with the fact that computers exist?

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#33

Post by jordigh »

So, why aren't they just phone apps these days?

I mean, I understand why education wants these calculators, to control the students during tests. But after you leave school, why haven't calculator phone apps taken their place? Or is it because that once you leave school and you really need to do calculations, you turn to R, Matlab, or Python instead?

Also, I'm surprised nobody has quoted xkcd yet:

https://xkcd.com/768/

Edit: I know phone apps exist. I am just wondering why they don't seem to be more popular. Or are they gaining popularity I'm not seeing?

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#34

Post by walshemj »

SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #24
walshemj wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much anyone working non trivially in STEM fields would find a physical calculator usefull - Acountants would be another group. Which reminds me I must see if I can get a replacement battery for my old HP RPN Calculator

I just use a computer, since generally I'm already using it when I have a question, it has many more resources, and it's easier to program complex calculations in.

So do I but I find it easier some times to pull out a physical calculator and have it on the desk next to my keyboard

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#35

Post by [deleted] »

SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #24
walshemj wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much anyone working non trivially in STEM fields would find a physical calculator usefull - Acountants would be another group. Which reminds me I must see if I can get a replacement battery for my old HP RPN Calculator

I just use a computer, since generally I'm already using it when I have a question, it has many more resources, and it's easier to program complex calculations in.

[deleted]

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#36

Post by jtraffic »

coding123 wrote: post #15

Do you all hear that? What is it? It's the fond-memory train coming to this thread. A friend and I were programming a text-and-map based RPG on the Ti-85. It was really awesome, you could walk around on the map from town to town and enemies would find you kinda like Final Fantasy, then you fight them. Anyway we were pretty far into the game. I started programming a "Quadra Pong" game at the same time. This Quadra Pon…

Honestly, I love when the fond-memory train comes to any thread.

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#37

Post by FungalRaincloud »

jerf wrote: post #3

Going digital would have some other advantages too. It would be easy to make a staged calculator where buttons only appear as you learn how to use them, for instance, so you don't stick a calculator in an Algebra II student's face that has stuff for calculus on it, which only contributes to the mystique of "math being hard". For a specialist who uses physical calculators all the time for serious computations, the adv…

What I'm interested in is something that takes hand drawn input and converts it to expressions that can be evaluated. A dedicated keyboard for math has been immensely helpful to me, as well, because it speeds up the input more than any software only solution I've tried. But there are always things which require some thought about how to enter them in. Not having to do that conversion myself would be pretty nice. I think there's some potential there.

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#39

Post by samfisher83 »

I think one of the reasons why many teachers prefer the old ti83 it is because it isn't online. They don't want people cheating. Some classes you could only have a basic scientific calculator. In a lot of my college classes they just didn't let you use a graphing calculator since you could put a notes in there. Some classes just banned calculators.

I just have a hard time believe schools and teachers will allow interned connected devices on tests.

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#40

Post by himandey »

jordigh wrote: post #33

So, why aren't they just phone apps these days? I mean, I understand why education wants these calculators, to control the students during tests. But after you leave school, why haven't calculator phone apps taken their place? Or is it because that once you leave school and you really need to do calculations, you turn to R, Matlab, or Python instead? Also, I'm surprised nobody has quoted xkcd yet: https://xkcd.com/76…

If you have an android phone you can download Graph 89 Free for a fully functioning ti-89 emulator. All you need is the ROM provided by Ti and you're golden!
Post reply on HN