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Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

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Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#51

Post by Jtsummers »

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.

Computers aren't always available. Computers aren't as portable (though phones are as portable as these calculators). The tactile feedback of a calculator beats phones (for me) in the same way that a physical keyboard's feedback better enables touch typing compared to an on-screen keyboard. Computers don't lend themselves to being quickly pulled out in meetings for quick computations.

Phones are a better alternative in many ways, but calculators do still have their benefits.

What I want is a physical HP 48G-alike, with a more capable processor and display, and a better connector (serial/IR on the 48G I had, should be bluetooth and wifi and USB today) paired with an SD card for storage.

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#52

Post by justinclift »

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…

Desmos does have iOS and Android versions:

• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/desmos-graphing-calculator/i...

• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.desmos.cal...

The article probably should have mentioned that. :)

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#53

Post by [deleted] »

niftich wrote: post #31

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 ev…

[deleted]

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#54

Post by techstrategist »

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…

I once programmed an Army of Darkness / Evil Dead RPG on my TI-85. Animations and everything.

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#55

Post by kbenson »

peatmoss wrote: post #9

Related story (the author describing the TI monopoly jogged my memory): I am part of the generation that was required to buy a big blue or black graphing calculator. As a high schooler I was indignant that we were being told to buy from just one company. So, based on reviews posted in a variety of online forums, I bought an HP-48 instead of the specified TI. After telling all my friends that my new calculator was goi…

Similar situation here. It was... interesting going through high school and then college where they recommended a different calculator, and being one of the 1-3 people in class that didn't have the recommended[1] calculator. Certain operations took a bit longer, but also homework and tests were catered towards the known capabilities of the expected calculator, leading to a lot of manual and semi-manual solving of things other people zipped through with more calculator assistance.

On one hand, that gives you a pretty good understanding of what's actually going on. You're supposed to have that anyway, but it's easy to bumble through an assignment without a firm grasp of the mechanics if you have a lot of assistance. On the other hand, it led to the time and effort for some homework assignments being high enough that I chose not to complete them and focus on other homework.

1: A Casio in high school, TI in college.

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#56

Post by Jtsummers »

adrianN wrote: post #46
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…

It might just be me, but I read up on the buttons that I didn't understand yet. Some of them were really useful shortcuts that I wasn't supposed to know about.

Indeed. Learning something earlier than planned is a feature, not a bug.

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#57

Post by pmarreck »

peatmoss wrote: post #9

Related story (the author describing the TI monopoly jogged my memory): I am part of the generation that was required to buy a big blue or black graphing calculator. As a high schooler I was indignant that we were being told to buy from just one company. So, based on reviews posted in a variety of online forums, I bought an HP-48 instead of the specified TI. After telling all my friends that my new calculator was goi…

RPN is one of those many short-but-steep learning curves that is oh so worth it once you get it (off the top of my head, regex is another)

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#58

Post by misingnoglic »

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…

The problem with phones is policing cheating and goofing off.

Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending

#59

Post by pwg »

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…

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

Some are: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hp.hp15c15...

But the "magic" with the TI-84 series was not the calculator itself. It was TI's excellent marketing where (nearly) every school district, plus the SAT group, were all convinced that this particular calculator was "ok" and all others were "not ok". With the end result of a guaranteed market for TI for this calculator, without having to compete with any other manufacturers. I.e., they (TI) managed to create a 'legal' monopoly by convincing the govt. agencies to only allow this one calculator in class and during tests.

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