My good old TI-83 has finally died on me, and I need to purchase a new graphing calculator for my current AP Calc class, and I would love to purchase one that I could continue to use throughout my college engineering and math courses.
Many people have said the TI-89, but I’m afraid that some of my college classes will forbid use of a TI-89 due to CAS functions (Its forbidden on the ACT). Has anyone run into this problem? Is the TI-89 worth it? Is there a better calculator out there for engineering students?
Thanks!
PS not sure if it will help but these are the colleges I’m applying to.
-CO School of Mines
-CU Boulder
-U of Utah
-Purdue
-Ohio State
My son has used an 84 Plus from HS all the way through his Masters in ME. If it’s any reassurance, an old roommate left an NSpire behind and told him he could sell it. It is a more expensive, fancier calculator than the 84 Plus, but in his college town the NSpire models fetch less used than the 84 models do on CL and FB.
The bottom line is use what you’re comfortable with and don’t be concerned about spending a bunch on a fancy model. Matlab will be your tool of choice when it gets really complicated.
I personally have a Ti-Inspire CX and it’s very nice, but also more expensive than the other Ti calculators. In addition, there is a touchpad to navigate the screen that can be a bit finnicky but I find that it works well for Calculus.
Pretty sure my daughter has a TI 89 from calc in HS, but she’s not allowed to use it most of the time. She’s a first year though so not sure how that will change later.
Use in classes is generally up to the professor. The TI-89 is a great calculator, but is often banned because of all it can do. Personally, I used a TI-89 for homework and a TI-34 for exams.
Look at your list schools recommendations. Get the most common from that list. Think my son also has a 84 plus… There are some banned one’s. I just looked at Michigan’s suggestion where my son goes. TI-84
When I was earning my BS, it was always either all calculators were banned, all graphic calculators were banned, or nothing was banned. It seemed that if the 83/84 line was allowed, then so was the 89.
Now when I teach classes, I generally just don’t ban anything. Garbage in, garbage out.
@MAandMEmom, they may find that an Nspire won’t be allowed in some classes. Things that instructors expect students to memorize can be programmed into the Nspire. I’d have them check into that at their school, and have a Plan B.
That’s like saying Chocolate is better than Vanilla because YOU like taste of Vanilla. To say the 89 sucks is ludicrous. It has many, many devotes and it doesn’t require retraining your brain to RPN. Lots of people happily trade the power for the ease of use. It’s a matter of opinion, either would be fine, both are probably overkill and would get banned by some professors because of their programmability. There is no “best” calculator, just like there is no “best” computer.
In our local school district, graphing calculators are still pushed hard by the HS math department. Each teacher generally has a set in their classroom, and students are encouraged to by one. Which is a fine, to a point. What irks me is the pitch by the teachers of “they will need this for college so you should buy one now”, because the experience of my own kids at NCSU is that a graphing calc is either not needed or not allowed in class.
What’s worse - I tutor for HS math and for very basic “math things” such as the vertex of a parabola, the kids are often lost with out the calculator. But I digress, and risk sounding like everyone needs to get off my lawn.
@eyemgh If you compare specs to specs you will found that the HP 50g have more features. For example, TI-89 has only 188kb massive RAM and Hp 50g has 512 KB RAM with expandable memory. You get more for your money with the Hp 50g. It displays 3D graphs. Plus it is least expensive compare to the Ti-89.
Price being equal, most Windows machines out spec Macs, yet I strongly prefer Mac. It isn’t about spec. It is about picking a device that will get the job done that the user likes using. As @boneh3ad said, most heavy lifting isn’t done with a hand held device anyway.