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

Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

thehustle.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 460 posts

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#111

Post by russfink »

clamprecht wrote: post #108
jmcphers wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can easily store notes on a TI calculator. I had a TI-85 in college, and was occasionally guilty of writing TI-BASIC programs to make tests easier (for example, I had one which computed Euler's method).

In prison, only non-programmable calculators were allowed. A friend somehow had gotten a TI-85 in. I programmed it to say "NON-PROGRAMMABLE CALCULATOR" as its startup message, so they wouldn't take it during a random search. I also wrote a basic stock portfolio manager - this was the only chance I had to program during my 5 years there.

Why would they care about a calculator?

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#113

Post by lopmotr »

__sy__ wrote: post #103

Former math TA* here. What if the pb isn't the $100 barebone calculator but the way/medium by which math is currently instructed in the U.S.? To this day, we're still teaching math with pen & paper, and require students to memorize concepts like how to differentiate functions of the form 1/x, x^2...etc. To test proficiency, well we give pen & paper tests and forbid most notes, but we still provide you a calculator be…

> differentiate functions of the form 1/x, x^2...etc. To test proficiency, well we give pen & paper tests and forbid most notes,

Maybe it's a US thing, but that sounds horrible. When I was a teacher, we usually allowed notes and always gave them the differentiation formulas as well as every other formula they might need. Why are you guys getting them to memorize a bunch of specific facts that they'll forget after the exam? You don't learn math by reciting formulas to yourself the way you might learn vocabulary in a foreign language. I'm not even sure you learn languages very well that way either.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#114

Post by agumonkey »

__sy__ wrote: post #103

Former math TA* here. What if the pb isn't the $100 barebone calculator but the way/medium by which math is currently instructed in the U.S.? To this day, we're still teaching math with pen & paper, and require students to memorize concepts like how to differentiate functions of the form 1/x, x^2...etc. To test proficiency, well we give pen & paper tests and forbid most notes, but we still provide you a calculator be…

it's true that computers can allow exploratory and multi...dimensional or multi-representations of math concepts in way that can be very very powerful to teach.

That said pen and paper is the only thing you need when you think.

The current context is mostly absurd because we give useless tools at absurd prices.

Make a rpi like pocket calc with a CAS and RPL (hp forever) or even newer ideas like js/glsl canvas.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#116

Post by iscrewyou »

agumonkey wrote: post #114
__sy__ wrote: post #103

Former math TA* here. What if the pb isn't the $100 barebone calculator but the way/medium by which math is currently instructed in the U.S.? To this day, we're still teaching math with pen & paper, and require students to memorize concepts like how to differentiate functions of the form 1/x, x^2...etc. To test proficiency, well we give pen & paper tests and forbid most notes, but we still provide you a calculator be…

it's true that computers can allow exploratory and multi...dimensional or multi-representations of math concepts in way that can be very very powerful to teach. That said pen and paper is the only thing you need when you think. The current context is mostly absurd because we give useless tools at absurd prices. Make a rpi like pocket calc with a CAS and RPL (hp forever) or even newer ideas like js/glsl canvas.

> That said pen and paper is the only thing you need when you think.

Anecdata, I occasionally design with CAD software. Working on details, it's hard for me to draw up(think up) the first draft in CAD. Pen and paper is the only way to get the thing off the ground and running.

Basic things require the most basic tools. What i'm trying to say is that you are correct.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#117

Post by mindcrime »

fireattack wrote: post #107
mindcrime wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opposite story here... I still use my TI-89 (or my even older TI-86) from time to time, even when sitting in front of a PC that has R, Maxima, Gnuplot, Axiom, Sage, etc. installed. There is something about the format of those old TI calculators that I find oddly appealing for whatever reason. That said, when I don't have a hand-held calculator handy, I usually just fire up bc or R when I need to do some quick calcula…

What is bc?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bc_(programming_language)

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#118

Post by egdod »

jedberg wrote: post #17
egdod wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>no ability to store notes You can still type in programs, right? I remember kids storing a bunch of notes that way.

Yes, but most test proctors make you clear the memory before the test. In fact, one of the programs my friends and I wrote was one that faked the memory clearing process. This worked because at the time the test proctors didn't really know how the calculator worked so our fake was good enough.

Ha, that’s pretty good.

Back when I was in school a million years ago, nobody thought to make us clear the memory before exams. So people just got away with it, as far as I know.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#119

Post by LgWoodenBadger »

avgDev wrote: post #88
bsamuels wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick with those is you can make a TI-BASIC program that will make it look like you cleared the memory - fake empty "programs" list and all. There were a few tiny details you couldn't replicate like the highlighting animation, but they never noticed when I did it.

I did this. Oddly enough in a computer science class we had an old professor. He accused me of cheating. He was right. However, he physically inspected my calculator like under the cover and where batteries are lol but did not check the programs. He apologized. I did well on the test.

I'm having trouble figuring out what type of material in Computer Science would require a calculator.
Post reply on HN