<p>how much math will the TI-89 help you do? I have a TI-84 and wondering if I should get a TI-89 for my calculus class?</p>
<p>does it help you do derivatives and limits?</p>
<p>Yes. A TI-89 will do lots of calculus that will make the MC choice part of the ap test a breeze. That is, if you know how to use it.</p>
<p>i dunno djdooey...i'd say that im pretty well versed with the 89, and there really was little advantage to having it for the bc calc exam. either the answers were to be shown numerically (in which case the 83/84 line would have been enough) or the integral/derivative could be done easily by hand if you knew the math...</p>
<p>the 89 can give you [symbolically, of course, and im just reading this off the menu] the derivative (or 2nd, 3rd and so on), integrate, take sums and products, find limits, solve factor expand and find zeros, common denomiators, differentiate implicitly.....etc</p>
<p>if you have the ability to not rely too much on it and make sure you can do your math without the calculator, by all means get it. it helps out when you have to do a billion silly things you know how to do. however, if you think you may be tempted to just use the calc to do your hw and not try it by hand, well...</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Youre right, it didnt help me much on the BC exam MC this year. But it did help me save a lot of time on my final in the class...which was previous BC exams.</p>
<p>At my school we aren't allowed to use calculators in our Calculus classes (*only for engineering/math related majors). Not even scientific or basic functions. But we can use it on homework.</p>
<p>I use my calculator the most in my physics class. It's a TI-89 and I only use it because it's what was provided to me by my school in high-school and I got used to it. Otherwise, I see people using a variety of calculators.</p>
<p>just hold up on making an investment on this. see what they use when you get there, your not gonna be able to use a calculator for a while anyways, but if you must get one, you cant go wrong with Ti-89. but from what I understand most engineers use HP that use reverse polish notation.</p>
<p>I finally bought a TI-89 my senior year, and I think it was good timing...
We were never allowed to use TI-89s in the lower level math classes, where the whole point is to learn how to solve the equations yourselves... but after I passed DiffEQ it was extremely helpful. Just saves loads of time on the exams. Although most of the time the professors want some sort of work shown anyway. I have to say though, it was a huge help for my other upper level engineering courses (especially EE classes). A couple of the calc classes I took allowed scientific calculators, just to double check addition, etc... so its nice to have one around.</p>
<p>I'm certainly grateful that my son's AP calc teacher didn't let them use calculators for two years. It looks like many colleges don't allow it? I thought it was weird, but I guess she knew what she was doing!</p>