I mean, I don’t even use the graphing functions on mine anymore, as I’m no longer in calculus, but damn, these things are nifty. I love being able to plug an entire equation in at once, and they’re so easy to check your work on! Even for simple equations, it’s so wonderful for all your work to be displayed on the screen. And, let’s not forget how easy it is to use the answer from one calculation as a term in the next . . . and they have games.
Anyways, they’ve definitely spoiled me, and I really hate using regular single-line calculators now, no matter how many functions they have (which are invariably less than a graphing calculator). Your numbers disappear as soon as you enter new ones! My lab is full of people who peck away at the old-school things for rather complicated calculations, and I always wonder why . . . granted, graphing calculators can be kind of hefty and expensive, but if you calculate on a daily basis, even if it’s just balancing your checkbook, they make life so much easier.
Mundane? Indeed.
Pointless? I think not!
I love graphing calculators.
Gestalt,
who is studying for her physics final. and whose ensuing terrible grade can certainly not be blamed on her wonderful calculator.
Some of them even do basic calculus!
I don’t use those old-school “hand-held” calculators anymore but I get totally bummed (and sometimes confused!) when I have to use the default Microsoft calculator on a computer.
I installed the powertoys calculator on my machine many years ago (ok maybe 3) and now it’s part of the default “software to install” every time I set up a new instance of Windows.
I also turn off all the graph stuff, but that’s just me. I couldn’t make a graph if you held a gun to my head. But seeing my previous work is priceless!
I agree - non-scientific calculators are teh suxx0rs!
Yes, but it’s really not being able to see the last thing you entered simultaneously that’s a real problem. I didn’t get one until HS, and maybe just having my computer activity increase steadily from childhood had a part in this, but I find it incredibly frustrating to not have one now, as well. And I used to tutor SAT, and the graph function was still useful for finding the intersection of quadratics. Even if it’s only really really simple stuff (I don’t remember dick about parametrics, or about anything else of that matter, but except for the stats, I used every part of the calculator in HS, even the graphing mode one to the right of polar functions [on a TI-83], that has some weird interface. Yeah, I used that once), I find them incredibly helpful and I’ll never go back.
Tangentally, does anyone know how to check if you have a “stupid” calculator or not? A math teacher way back in 5th grade gave us a very simple trick to see if it stored actual values or just approximations: 2/3x6. (incidentally, this was the same math teacher who enjoyed such jokes as “Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana” and “Pi R square, no pie are round, cornbread are square.” What is it about really intelligent people having terrible senses of humor?) If it stores only approximations, it will render 2/3 as .6666 and consequently produce 3.9999 as the final answer. If it’s smart, it will store that as 2/3 and give you 4.
In stores I will sometimes punch this into different calculators just to see what they have, and although most will be stupid, occasionally I’ll see a 4 on the screen (we’re talking strictly non-scientific calculators here-- all scientific ones will give you 4). Since I’ve been to Japan, I haven’t found any. Not a single model in any of the stores I’ve been in produces 4 as the result.
Not quite sure what to make of that. Maybe I just need to get out to more stores.
I’ve never used a graphing calculator, so I guess I’m missing out. I lost my scientific calculator about 6 years ago and I’ve been using the Windows one ever since. Thanks zipper for that link!
The most powerful function for me is the solver function. I was totally psyched when I found out to use it with two or more equations and two unknowns. I finished tests -way- earlier than the instructor intended in many engineering classes because time was allowed to use various methods to solve for the final answer. I’d just plug it in, and have an answer almost instantly.
I had a Texico Nascar model kit that I never got around to putting together, so I used the decals from it to decorate my '89. I put them on just as they would have on the car, and they’re about the same size. I tell everybody I have the fastest calculator around! What a dork.
All I want is a calculator with large, fingertip-sized buttons. I “fat finger” the equations most every time. And when I do get through a problem, I always doubt my answer.
OMG, I just got this joke. :smack: Fruit flies, as in the insect, enjoy bananas. I always pictured a banana flying through the air. I am such a freakin’ dork.
BTW, the scary thing is if you’re in a field where you use your calculator a lot, you pretty much get stuck using the calulator you used in college for the rest of your life. I’ve seen engineers desperately trying to find another model of their ancient HP that finally gave up the ghost. I"f be bereft if I had to switch from my at least 15 years old HP 48SX.
I definitely can feel everyone on the “addiction to your model” problem . . . it’s so true, you end up using your high school calculator for the rest of your life. I see them new-fangled TI 89s and get so confused and scared . . . the worst are the kind with relatively few buttons, but 8 zajillion functions, so everything has to be accessed through some weird menu. I can maneuver the ol’ 83 with my eyes closed, practically.
You don’t! If you’re connected to the internet, you can use Google calculator. Just type your problem into the Google search box and press enter. Extremely useful for conversions. Also, if you need to do some complicated integrals, go here: Integral Calculator: Integrate with Wolfram|Alpha
While I recognise the “real-world” usefulness of a graphing calculator, I tend to feel that they shouldn’t be used in school.
I just feel that it is unfair to the students who try and learn how to solve integrals (for example) by hand, when another student can basically just have a computer do it for them, and never have to learn to do it themselves. I had a question on a physics test that required us to graph the equation for something. I lost a mark because I didn’t solve the infinite limits, but otherwise got the graph right. Another student used a graphing calculator, didn’t show any work, but copied the graph off the screen and got full marks (yeah, I complained about it, but the prof basically told me that the fact was mine was incomplete while hers was right… I’m not happy about it!)
I know other universities have standard calculators; that is, if you bring one for a test, it must be a certain non-graphing model, or else you will be considered as cheating. That puts everyone one even footing, so that you are evaluated against the other students, rather than against a computer.
Then again, graphing calculators weren’t really even available when I first went through high school, which seems to be when most students get theirs. Maybe I’m just too old
Don’t worry, tremor, I thought the same thing for years actually. I just thought that it was kind of funny thinking of a banana being shot from a bow. Then I got it, and it wasn’t really that much more amusing.
I agree with this in part. For example, we were allowed to use a TI-83, which wouldn’t factor for you, but not an 89, which would. I think there is something lost when you have the computer do everything for you, but to not be able to have the graph function at all seems so detrimental to me at this point that I don’t know what I’d do without it. I can graph, but it just takes freaking forever.
I have to disagree a bit here. I think that you should also learn how to do things by hand, but these calculators are complex enough that learning to use them in a school environment would be extremely beneficial if you are going to have to use them in the “real world”.
I loved my graphic calculator! I once, using every last bit of ram, figured out how to program it to play a game I invented (which I’ve since seen other versions of). I admit I occasionally used it as a crib sheet too… :rolleyes:
