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

411–420 of 460 posts

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

#411

Post by throwawayjava »

jerf wrote: post #25
5trokerac3 wrote: post #4

TI calculators are the biggest technology racket in education. The fact alone that most schools won't allow the use of Casio equivalents deserves an anti-trust investigation. There are programs that even dictate which TI model is accepted.

"There are programs that even dictate which TI model is accepted." At this point in 2019, with such cheap computation, the school calculator lines are being sold as much on what they don't do as what they do. Around 1994 or 1995, I had an HP-48G calculator, a real scientific programmable calculator meant for engineers and scientists, where the rest of the class had the TI line of school calculators. The HP-48G could…

Maybe it's time to move on from integration bees as the Pinnacle of high school mathematics.

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

#412

Post by anthonypasq »

gonehome wrote: post #174
singron wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used a TI-89 (which has a CAS) on the AP Calculus exam. I maybe used it to double check an answer, but I don't remember it being more useful than a TI-83 on that exam. You can only use calculators on part of the exam. On the calculator portion, I remember formulating each problem to be the hard part and the actual differentiation/integration was straightforward. The SAT math is so rudimentary that it's difficult to…

I find the 89 to be a huge leap over the 83 entirely because of the screen UX. On the 89 it would draw the actual fractions and show exponents in superscript rather than only using parenthesis. You could also scroll up to previous entries and bring them back to the editor (or get previous answers). The mistakes you avoid from not having to count parenthesis and being able to easily access previously typed equations w…

you can do all of that on a ti-84

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

#413

Post by selimthegrim »

jabl wrote: post #390
selimthegrim wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real way to do this is using differential forms so you just have matrices that you read off. Using the appropriate metric and the normalized form you don't need to memorize anything (see section 5 of https://www.math.arizona.edu/~faris/methodsweb/manifold.pdf )

I learned EM the traditional way with vector calculus, but I regret I never got around to properly learn it formulated via one of the generalizations like geometric algebra or differential forms. Oh well, maybe someone will write a magnus opus EM book using differential forms to rival Jackson's book, and the next generation of students can learn it.

I think Zangwill mentions it

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

#414

Post by anotheryou »

jedberg wrote: post #7

This can be summed up pretty easily. The TI graphing calculator has no internet access and no ability to store notes. Neither ability can be easily added. As long as that is the case, they will win, because the test companies don't want to deal with people having internet access and notes. Now if Apple/Android made a simple way for a test proctor to put your phone into a single app only that you couldn't easily break…

there is also 2 memories: one for your work, one for "apps" or even like a repository for dormant apps to be installed.

You can move your stuff to the frozen app part, do the default reset and than moe them back.

Not that I ever did this in biology class, but you could, even with images. I also never used it as a chat with my neighbour.

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

#415

Post by lonelappde »

csande17 wrote: post #298
dTal wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it worked for you - but surely in an adversarial context, there's absolutely no way to trust a previously untrusted device. In the extreme case, the entire interface might simply be a simulacrum app designed to feign success at locking.

Yup, a student could easily write an app that fakes the Desmos Test Mode confirmation screen, just like how a student could write a TI-BASIC program that displays "MEMORY CLEARED" on the screen. What's old is new again...

It's not "easy", that is to DRM. It would have to be installed using private developer keys or jailbreak or pass app store approval.

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

#416

Post by lonelappde »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #401
ggreer wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how that would work since the teacher could reboot the device or hit/swipe home to exit the fake app. If the fake app was in guided access mode, they'd see a pin input instead of a home screen. The only way to fool the teacher would be to jailbreak the device. The 6s running iOS 9 is the most recent untethered jailbreak. All newer devices and iOS versions will revert back to stock kernel after reboot. Th…

Why does the Jailbreak need to be untethered? Is the teacher walking around and making every student reboot in front of them? Rebooting takes a solid minute, so in a not-particularly-large class of 20 kids, you’re dedicating a solid 20 minutes to this activity. Once Jailbroken, I don’t think you’d need a fake app. Just make a very simple patch that overrides whatever is preventing you from returning to the homescreen…

To can reboot in parallel, since a minute is a good amount of tike to eyeball the whole class

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

#417

Post by tripzilch »

jacobolus wrote: post #250
cydonian_monk wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheat-sheets are also far more "real world" than the fake environment many schools cling to. I don't know a single practicing engineer that doesn't have a note scribbled somewhere. My engineering school recognized this decades ago and adjusted accordingly. Now the math department? They were a different story. No calculators. Period. Ever. Made higher-level calculus... interesting. Thankfully I'd already had it in hig…

> Now the math department? They were a different story. No calculators. Period. Ever. Made higher-level calculus... interesting. There is no reason for any math course at any level to ever need a calculator, period. The point of math courses is learning to think, not learning to avoid fat-fingering tiny buttons or learning the specific crappy interface of some anachronistic antique machine. Without an electronic calc…

You're right except for when the exam is in numerical methods :)

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

#418

Post by xnyan »

brokenmachine wrote: post #223
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some prison rules are written in blood. Most prison rules are written in bureaucracy and profit motive. No prison escape movie ever ended with the guard preventing future escapes by instituting a new "no sleeveless shirts when visiting an inmate" rule.

Forgive my ignorance, but how do sleeveless shirts help facilitate an escape?

Lots of prisons have dress codes for visitors of prisoners banning visitors from certain kinds of clothing. On the banned list of items, you will never see Burberry tweed or men's sport coats, but rather t-shirts, types of shorts or other clothes poor people wear (often called "trashy" clothing). It's about shame and control.

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

#419

Post by xnyan »

zhte415 wrote: post #269
brokenmachine wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive my ignorance, but how do sleeveless shirts help facilitate an escape?

Perhaps a reference to Prison Break, where a character had a map of the prison tattood to his body? Just a guess.

They are talking about visitors to prisoners. See my post above, but these dress codes are what dress codes are always for - control and/or shame.

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

#420

Post by xnyan »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #387
brokenmachine wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive my ignorance, but how do sleeveless shirts help facilitate an escape?

I'd argue it's something to do with decency, appearance, atmosphere, given that (at least in my culture) while T-shirts are fine, sleeveless shirts are seen as rather trashy.

I agree with you. I do find your choice of word "decency" troubling to me. Dress codes are often about control and shame of the poor and in a prison visitors lobby that seems about right. This seems less about decency and more about telling poor people their clothes are not nice enough for a prison which is kind of funny considering prisons are purpose built to be among the worst places in existence in our society.

Trashy is sort of a slur on the poor. Not trying to call you out or anything, maybe there's a better word that trashy aka saying a person is like trash.

Post reply on HN