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

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

#121

Post by mobilemidget »

jmcphers wrote: post #16
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…

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).

We even had snake to play on it

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

#122

Post by ChickeNES »

sct202 wrote: post #33

How is there not a giant 2nd hand marketplace of TI graphing calculators for super cheap? Like after 30 years of basically producing a functionally identical product that few people need after college, there should be cheap used graphing calculators everywhere.

Agreed, I've picked up 83's and 84's for less than $10, and have seen many more at pawn shops and thrift stores

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

#123

Post by kmbriedis »

bsznjyewgd wrote: post #66

I feel really out of the loop here. I went through a pretty standard curriculum in the 2000s and have never owned or used a graphing calculator (aside from the few times the teacher demonstrated our school's TI-83s in class in high school). What are they used for? [And while I used a bog standard scientific calculator regularly in science/stats classes, I'm pretty sure my calculus classes disallowed calculators and o…

Same here. I have taken many Calculus and Algebra classes, SAT Math level 2 and have no clue why these graphing calculators are necessarily...

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

#124

Post by asperous »

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…

> 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 out of, maybe things will change.

Apple actually supports this: "When you give a test to your students, you can lock their iPad in to an assessment app and turn off features that you don't want them to use."

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204775

I tried it just now with desmos testing app. It starts when you click "start test" and ends after 8 hours or when you click "complete". Teachers just verify that the start time and duration looks right before they click complete test and disable the mode. During that time you can't switch apps, look at notifications, etc.

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

#125

Post by zosterops »

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?

An arbitrary precision calculator language. It can be used as a scripting language or from an interactive shell. It is part of POSIX so you are running Linux you probably have it installed.

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

#126

Post by Jtsummers »

russfink wrote: post #111
clamprecht wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Rules in prisons and other high-security places are often extreme. They start with a simple kernel, which may or may not make sense: No personal computing devices (under the assumption that computing devices can be used for un-controlled communication, this may not have been articulated). Someone asks about people using calculators for their GED or whatever, so they permit them. Someone else realizes calculators can be computers (not in just the basic sense of performing computation, but general computers). They extend the rules but keep the carved out exception for non-programmable calculators.

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

#127

Post by naikrovek »

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…

The HP Prime calc has these features, has been out for years, is FAR, FAR more powerful than any TI calc I know of, including the newer CAS models, has top-facing LEDs so the teacher can know that you're in test mode at a glance, costs (and is worth) $125 or so, and has never taken off at all.

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

#128

Post by esrauch »

russfink wrote: post #111
clamprecht wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

They presumably didn't want people using a TI-83/85 effectively as a gameboy.

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

#129

Post by alanbernstein »

Robotbeat wrote: post #36
frostburg wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's nice but as far as I know it doesn't have a real CAS despite its processing power.

The TI-89 series' CAS is really impressive, particularly since it was released over 20 years ago with automatic equation formatting and a powerful unit subsystem. The price of this is worth it for the software alone.

It's still my favorite CAS for unit conversions, simple equation solving, checking integrals and derivatives. Part of that is surely the muscle memory of the buttons from using it daily for 6 years, most of that before I even had a phone.

Now I have an emulator with a ti89 ROM on my phone. Best offline calculator app available.

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

#130

Post by gnulinux »

fwip wrote: post #40
gnulinux wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was taking my AP finals, the school I'll attend them in gave me a list of models they will accept. My school does NOT have AP system, so I had to take it in a different school (which is the only school supports it in my country), thus I had 0 leverage. I didn't have one of the calculators they allow (some other Casio model), I called them and they told me I'll be rejected to take the exam. I had to buy another…

That sucks. In my experience, kids who didn't have them were offered loaners for the duration of the test.

They told me that's a possibility but (1) I didn't wanna be stuck with a foreign/sucky calculator in my Calculus BC test since it has parts that require you to use a calculator and (2) they said there is no guarantee, so I didn't wanna take my chances (what if I'm late and they're out of all extra calculators)
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