<p>What's the best calculator for engineering? I'm deciding between the TI-84 and TI-89.</p>
<p>I like the 89</p>
<p>All of my classes are strictly NO CALCULATOR. I'd leave it at home.</p>
<p>^Same here. My Physics and Chemistry classes only allow scientific calculators. Everything else is "strictly NO CALCULATOR."</p>
<p>Stay with whatever graphing calculator you have, or you're going to have to learn an entirely different calculator. Any calcs that your current graphing calculator can't handle, you'll want to do in the computer lab.</p>
<p>Don't leave it at home, though. You're just going to have to have someone mail it to you when you run into a case where you <em>are</em> allowed to use your calculator.</p>
<p>FWIW, calculators were never outlawed in any of my classes. Simple arithmetic was never really the big problem... it was those darned partial differential equations that wouldn't resolve to anything that would fit on a single page.</p>
<p>Good point. In Calculus I wasn't allowed a calculator but for stats and physics classes I used the 89.</p>
<p>I like my Ti-89.</p>
<p>Get the Ti-89 and a TI-30X/TI-36X (for FE exam and other non-graphing calculator purposes)</p>
<p>You really, really don't have to buy another calculator if you have one already. I'm <em>still</em> using the same beat-up TI-83 that I've had since 7th grade. That was... oh, man. Fifteen years ago. It's lasted me through two degrees and two years of practicing engineering, so far.</p>
<p>Anything I don't do with this calculator, which I know like the back of my hand, I use a computer for. I really think upgrading calculators is kind of a waste of money.</p>
<p>Use it for beer and pizza instead, like a good college kid.</p>
<p>Edit: Good thought, with the FE exam thing... but I wouldn't put it past the NCEES to change the calculator guidelines before you end up taking the FE exam eventually, so I wouldn't invest in a calculator for that reason alone.</p>
<p>I've actually switched back to using a scientific calculator now that I'm out of school. Those TI's are just too bulky for me.</p>
<p>whatever you can do fast arithmetic with</p>
<p>I use a IT 83 also. I would stick with the scientific calculator but i need the extra space to remember for memory purposes rather than writing it down on a piece of paper.</p>
<p>The TI 89 is just a nice calculator to have. You will probably not be able to use it (or any calculator) on many tests, but tests are not the only times you are going to have to do math as an engineer. I always have my TI 89, voltmeter, and soldering iron in my lab bench.</p>
<p>Oh, and on a slightly unrelated note: you don't want to be able to use calculators on tests. They are almost always harder when you can.</p>
<p>EDIT: Although if you have a TI 83 already, just stick with what you know. The TI 89 is nice, but it takes a little getting used to. And the extra stuff that is nice in it is certainly not necessary.</p>