<p>Hey i need some help in trying to decide what kind of calculator i should buy next year for college. I am going into engineering (freshman), and am trying to decide between the Hp 50G and the TI-89 Titanium. I have previously used the Hp 33s extensively and am familiar with the RPN syntax. I have also used the TI-84 throughout high school and am familiar with it as well. I just want to know which calculator would be the best choice for me, and how much the HP 50g should cost (The prices on Amazon seem out of the norm for a new calc). Like i said i just want the pros and cons of each, and your opinion on which would be better</p>
<p>My son loves his TI 89. He thinks it is the best. I am not familiar with the HP 50g, nor is my son. We just looked up the HP and he said that it looks really good…he said the step-by-step would be a great feature and that it is not on the TI 89. You should check with your college to make sure both will be allowed on tests.</p>
<p>Ok thanks…yeah ill probably wait a week into college and ask my professors and others around.</p>
<p>Ti-83+ is my BFF: 4 years of high school and 3+ years of engineering. Honestly, the calculator you have now should be fine and for most of the intro courses you probably won’t be using a calculator on a test. Although, more options might be useful for homework, but you could use WolframAlpha or MathCAD (check with the school if they use programs like this). Even in my higher courses, I didn’t rely on a fancy calculator. </p>
<p>Just a thought on saving money.</p>
<p>Don’t buy either. I bought an HP 50G and never used it. Never needed to use it. Graphing calculators are overrated. If they were more important, then professional engineers and scientists would use them–but they don’t. Only students use them because they are told they need them. I used to use a TI-82 that you can get for five or ten bucks on ebay, it had every feature I needed. Once the batteries died I relied on the graphing calculator app on my phone, and I mainly use it for calculations, not graphing or any of the other fancy features.</p>
<p>For “serious” math on a computer, I would just use Mathematica, students usually get it free.</p>
<p>Seriously, just get a TI-82/83/84 for real cheap and don’t worry that it’s twenty years old. It’s all you need.</p>
<p>Some people seem to go to school in places where a calculator isn’t needed for some reason.
For others, I’d recommend the TI-89. Never let me down.</p>
<p>I don’t know why the screen of Ti-89 was made so dark and numbers hard to see. Does anyone think that’s a real problem?</p>
<p>Yes. The turbo kids have TI Nspire’s and the screens are considerably better than the TI-84’s. The Inspire CX my younger one has is borderline awesome hardware wise, but the usability and menus are pretty BAD. The older Inspire with the detachable key plate is more usable if you’re a TI aficionado.</p>
<p>TI-89 is a great calculator. Learning curve is steep at first but it saves so much time in Calculus and Physics.</p>
<p>I am surprised there are people down on the graphing calculators in high level math courses. If you are going for engineering, your going to go through Calc 1-3, DiffEq, and possible Linear Algebra, Discrete Math, and more. The ti-89 is capable of solving many MANY steps in your problems that take up more than an entire page. If you feel like solving for y(4), y’’, y’ then plugging it into an equation like 4y(4)-y’’+24y’’-y and trying to reduce algebraically, go for it. Many people choose to use the calculator, not because they cannot do Calculus, Algebra, or arithmetic by hand, but because it helps save time and reduce small mistakes with many problems. </p>
<p>Have you ever been in a position where you forgot a trig-substituion integral? With the ti-89, no problem. Multi-var calculus, no problem. Have you ever been stumped trying to solve a 3x3 determinant (the name Wronskrain comes to mind) using first and second derivatives, no problem. The ti-89 (or any graphing calculator for that matter) is simply a tool to aid you. </p>
<p>Why would you want to remove 15 screws by hand, when you have a perfectly capable electric drill available to use.</p>
<p>In fact, I challenge anybody here to solve this quick integral by hand:
integral of 1/[(1+y^2)^2] dy</p>
<p>That is from chapter 1, section 5 of my diffeq class. It is also one segment of one problem. When your given 2 hours to complete an exam, I certainly wouldn’t want to spend 15-30 minutes trying to solve an integral.</p>
<p>Unless your taking easy classes, with easy prof’s, I don’t see how you can get into Junior year @ an engineering college without a ti-89 or equivalent.</p>
<p>I never used my TI-89 in college. They prohibited us from using any type of graphing calculator so all we could use were scientific calculators. I would hold off on buying any graphing calculator and wait to see what your professors say about it.</p>
<p>what about Casio FX-9860G II >>>it rocks and it can beat the TI products.</p>
<p>TPD, for long tedious chains of math of the kind you’re talking about, I will use Mathematica (and that seems to be all I use Mathematica for). It’s way easier to type than it is to push one button at a time into a little box. That is, IF I already know full well how to do it. If you’re just letting your calculator do all of your math for you then you won’t learn math.</p>
<p>Not true about professional Engineers not using HP’s. Four of five professional engineers in my office use HP48’s and won’t touch anything else. The fifth uses a TI. On a side note, the professional engineering exams don’t allow graphing calculators. I passed the California SE exam with my trusty HP35s.</p>
<p>My son is in 9th grade honors math, and he asked for an HP50g even though his teachers use TI’s. He converted to RPN in 7th grade, and he doesn’t care for algebraic input. He has been using my HP35s and needs a graphing calculator, so he chose the hp.</p>
<p>Depends on yur school. You wont need it till at least sophomore year. It helps with homework, but some professors wont let you use calculators or a graphing calculator on exams. I went through Cal 1-3 and Diff Eq by using pencil and paper only. I would say just buy a TI 36x pro. For 20 bucks it will do everything you need to do except graph. Will even solve integrals, derivatives, systems of equations, and 3x3 matrices. </p>
<p>I have a HP50g and just now start using the advanced stuff as a junior EE major. Things like complex matrices. I like it, but I am thinking of getting a TI89 to help me on exams because of one program that basically solves anything an EE student would need.</p>
<p>I use Matlab for homework now. It’s quicker and easier to do problems in Matlab on your computer than punching in 20 button sequences on a calculator. </p>
<p>HP’s are awesome though. It’s more old school though. Has a port for connecting a printer for instance. When I was in the Navy, we used HP’s loaded with a custom program from Rolls Royce to calculate jet engine efficiency and print results.</p>
<p>
Yeah, this was the real useful part. You could “tough it out” for a bunch of the 1-2 year classes, but when it came to something like quantum mechanics, solving massive integrals by hand simply became unfeasible. </p>
<p>Engineering by nature involves tedious calculations, which are best performed by CAS and by number crunchers. You aren’t any less of an engineer for relying on tools meant to make your job 100 times less tedious.</p>
<p>
Trying to make Mathematica do what I want it to do is not really my idea of a good time.</p>