<p>My son is heading into marine engineering next year, but is in AP calculus this year. I knew he would need a graphing calculator next year, but didn't realize he would need one for calculus. (He did <em>not</em> get his math brains from me, LOL) </p>
<p>I've been looking on Ebay for one. Money is pretty tight right now, so I can't really get him some top-of-the-line calculator, and I'm sure that's not necessary anyway. What would be an acceptable, functional model that would carry him into his engineering courses with no problem. I've seen people mention a TI-82, and those are affordable -- would that be enough or would he need better?</p>
<p>Thank you very much in advance from the opposite of a math person, lol. Hey, I can spell! ;-)</p>
<p>I’m a Junior Chemical Engineering major. I use a TI-84. Your son wouldn’t need anything above that, an 82 even would be fine but 84 has a few more statistic functions. I have a TI-89 also and it sits in my room collecting dust.</p>
<p>Thanks a bunch for the replies! I was hoping to spend maybe $25-30, so I’ll start searching for a TI-83 or -84, and if I can’t find one I can afford right now I’ll grab a TI-82 and know that it’ll still be okay. Thanks again!</p>
<p>Just to help out…and because I like to find deals… there is one on ebay right now for $26 ending in 2 hours, another ending in 21 hours in that price range as well. Just search “refurbished ti 83” and sort by “Time: ending soonest”. The first one comes with a 30 day warranty as well. Good luck.</p>
<p>TI calculators are much more expensive than other brands, so if money is tight I’d suggest going for a different brand. I have a Casio fx9750GII and it does the exact same things as the TI-83 and TI-84 calculators that my friends have - but at half the price. It’s $50 at office max where as a TI is $100.</p>
<p>My son just started Mech eng at UCONN on Monday. He has a TI-83 that is 4 years old from high school. His chem prof told them they need to get a scientific calculator (luckily they are not expensive) but I don’t want to have to buy him a new calculator every year. If I decide to buy him a new 84 plus (what is the difference between the 84plus and the 84 plus silver edition?), that should be good enough to get him through all 4 years?</p>
<p>TI-83 should be fine, but it might die (mine died halfway through freshman year of college, it was a sad day). You certainly won’t need to buy him a new calculator every year. If the TI-83 lasts, you should be fine. If it dies, then maybe think about the TI-84.</p>
<p>Seirsly-Thanks for your thoughts. I was thinking more in terms of having to get him a new calculator every year as the classes get harder because his old one doesn’t have the necessary bells and whistles. I just want to buy him one that has enough stuff on it to get him through his 4 years.</p>
<p>I mainly used my calculator for arithmetic, sometimes for graphing. A TI82 is all he needs. If the school “requires” an 89 or 92, they are getting money under the table from TI.</p>
<p>Advanced classes won’t require an advanced calculator. I’ve taken, calc, diffy qs, discrete math, linear algebra, vector analysis, complex analysis, honors quantum mechanics, honors electricity and magnetism, and I graduate next spring. My calculator? Its battery died a year ago and I haven’t bothered with it since.</p>
<p>It’s almost all pen and paper math, and sometimes the use of a program like Mathematica will be proscribed for a particular class. I use a free calculator app on my phone when I need to, and 99% of the time it’s for arithmetic or taking a logarithm or something like that.</p>
<p>Yeah, you definitely won’t need to keep buying calculators. A Ti-82/83/84/89 will do any thing he will need for ALL of engineering. Actually as my classes progressed they required a LESSER Calculator (Because for the Engineering Qualification exam, EIT/FE, you can not even use those high tech calculators). I am in a Masters in Industrial Engineering now, which is pretty math heavy, and I still use just a simple ti-36x pro that I bought new on amazon for ~$18.</p>
<p>For a normal calc I second the TI-36x pro. Some teachers won’t let you use graphing calculators on exams so its good to have a regular scientific calc. Does almost everything a graphing calculator can do except graphing and limited to 3x3 matrices and 2 simultaneous equation solver for bout 20 bucks.</p>
<p>So an 82 really would get my son through Calculus this year and then a 4-year Engineering program? Because the 82’s are a whole lot less than the 83’s… </p>
<p>Also – If the 82 is okay, does it need to be an 82 plus?</p>
<p>I really appreciate all y’alls insight so far!</p>
<p>Hello! I bought a TI 84 + C addition ( it had a weird purple cover so I got it on a good sale at Wal Mart.) I’m in Calc 1 now and haven’t needed it much. I’m not sure which Calc your son is in, but at least for 1, I think any of those calculators the above posters mentioned would be fine. As he progresses through the rest of the math/ eng courses, I think the 82 or something like it would work.</p>