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

Zero ZGC4: A Better Graphing Calculator for School and Beyond

zerocalculators.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 33 posts

Re: Zero ZGC4: A Better Graphing Calculator for School and Beyond

#11

Post by t-3 »

jgon wrote: post #4
t-3 wrote: post #3

It's the same price as a "standard" TI graphing calculator, has ugly buttons, and doesn't appear to have any special features in the software to distinguish it from competitors. What exactly is supposed to be better about this?

The standard TI graphing calculator offered to schools is the TI-84 Plus CE, which is generally 140USD and up. This calculator is currently offered for 89USD so you're already immediately incorrect on the pricing. The battery in this one is roughly 50% larger but that doesn't translate to better battery life necessarily. They both allow for programming with Python but this calculator would have to try incredibly hard…

I've always seen TI-84s being advertised for $90-$100 new and often being given away for free as hand-me-downs. Amazon also shows me many models from 90-110.

Re: Zero ZGC4: A Better Graphing Calculator for School and Beyond

#13

Post by EvanAnderson »

skywal_l wrote: post #10

> USB-C charging—no more scrambling for AAA batteries Bear with me if you’ve already seen this comment, but I dug out my old TI-89 a while ago for some reason, and all I had to do was plug in four AAA batteries and it worked. If it had been fitted with a rechargeable battery, 30 years ago, even assuming it was still functional, I would have needed to recharge it... but with what? Now we have USB-C rechargeable AA/AAA…

I haven't seen that comment, but please keep making it every time it's relevant.

Non-user-replaceable batteries are terrible. It turns devices into e-waste. I wish device manufacturers would understand that. I wish consumers would understand that.

Re: Zero ZGC4: A Better Graphing Calculator for School and Beyond

#14

Post by glimshe »

jgon wrote: post #4
t-3 wrote: post #3

It's the same price as a "standard" TI graphing calculator, has ugly buttons, and doesn't appear to have any special features in the software to distinguish it from competitors. What exactly is supposed to be better about this?

The standard TI graphing calculator offered to schools is the TI-84 Plus CE, which is generally 140USD and up. This calculator is currently offered for 89USD so you're already immediately incorrect on the pricing. The battery in this one is roughly 50% larger but that doesn't translate to better battery life necessarily. They both allow for programming with Python but this calculator would have to try incredibly hard…

I got my kid's on eBay for $50 during summer break... Looked almost brand new

Re: Zero ZGC4: A Better Graphing Calculator for School and Beyond

#15

Post by fasterik »

Is there actually a use case for graphing calculators anymore? Desmos provides a great graphing program for free in a web browser. In any professional capacity you would be using MATLAB, Mathematica, or the scientific Python ecosystem.

I mostly remember playing games on my TI-84 in high school. We used it in class maybe once or twice. None of my college classes allowed graphing calculators on tests, so ironically I had to buy a "dumb" calculator even though I owned the fancy one.

Re: Zero ZGC4: A Better Graphing Calculator for School and Beyond

#16

Post by fn-mote »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #13
skywal_l wrote: post #10

> USB-C charging—no more scrambling for AAA batteries Bear with me if you’ve already seen this comment, but I dug out my old TI-89 a while ago for some reason, and all I had to do was plug in four AAA batteries and it worked. If it had been fitted with a rechargeable battery, 30 years ago, even assuming it was still functional, I would have needed to recharge it... but with what? Now we have USB-C rechargeable AA/AAA…

I haven't seen that comment, but please keep making it every time it's relevant. Non-user-replaceable batteries are terrible. It turns devices into e-waste. I wish device manufacturers would understand that. I wish consumers would understand that.

> I wish device manufacturers would understand that.

Device manufacturers want you to buy another one. They understand. Consumers, not so much.

Re: Zero ZGC4: A Better Graphing Calculator for School and Beyond

#17

Post by chromacity »

fasterik wrote: post #15

Is there actually a use case for graphing calculators anymore? Desmos provides a great graphing program for free in a web browser. In any professional capacity you would be using MATLAB, Mathematica, or the scientific Python ecosystem. I mostly remember playing games on my TI-84 in high school. We used it in class maybe once or twice. None of my college classes allowed graphing calculators on tests, so ironically I h…

I don't think there was ever a solid use case for graphing calculators in school, at least not in my experience? The curriculum didn't make good use of them and I'm not convinced it could have. There's little value in having every kid in the classroom replicate the same plot of y = sin(x) or whatever on a tiny screen. And other than such demonstrations... what are you gonna do with it? It was never flexible or powerful enough for serious math. You weren't going to run circuit or physics simulations on a TI-89.

There are other features that can be useful - scientific notation, symbolic solver, unit conversions, etc - but graphing as such always seemed like a gimmick.

I think it's more of a not-entirely-rational appeal to parents: "if my kid has a top-notch calculator for high school / college, maybe they're gonna be better at math". And kids did not object, but in the end, mostly just sideloaded games and horsed around.

Re: Zero ZGC4: A Better Graphing Calculator for School and Beyond

#18

Post by EvanAnderson »

fn-mote wrote: post #16
EvanAnderson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't seen that comment, but please keep making it every time it's relevant. Non-user-replaceable batteries are terrible. It turns devices into e-waste. I wish device manufacturers would understand that. I wish consumers would understand that.

> I wish device manufacturers would understand that. Device manufacturers want you to buy another one. They understand. Consumers, not so much.

Fair enough. I wish consumers understood it and demonstrated that understanding to device manufacturers.

Re: Zero ZGC4: A Better Graphing Calculator for School and Beyond

#19

Post by harshreality »

No approval for AP/IB/SAT/ACT, as far as I can see.

No RPN. Every modern graphing calculator needs a mode (doesn't have to be the default) with RPN and a visible (4+ entry) stack. Once people actually learn how to use that for rapid, efficient calculations, they won't go back, but they never learn because all the major calculators don't even offer it as an alternate mode. That's the killer app for "graphing" calculators, because they can show multiple stack entries.

RPN may not be useful for math classes, which tend not to have as many problems involving many sequential calculations, but it's extremely valuable for science and engineering.

Re: Zero ZGC4: A Better Graphing Calculator for School and Beyond

#20

Post by jrmg »

skywal_l wrote: post #10

> USB-C charging—no more scrambling for AAA batteries Bear with me if you’ve already seen this comment, but I dug out my old TI-89 a while ago for some reason, and all I had to do was plug in four AAA batteries and it worked. If it had been fitted with a rechargeable battery, 30 years ago, even assuming it was still functional, I would have needed to recharge it... but with what? Now we have USB-C rechargeable AA/AAA…

One of the things I like most about my Xbox controllers is that they still take two AA batteries rather than having an internal one.

No need to think about charging the controller - just have a pair of charged AAs nearby and switch them out when it becomes necessary.

Post reply on HN