- #1
ArcanaNoir
- 779
- 4
What's your favorite calculator and why?
Mech_Engineer said:My good old circa 1997 TI-89 is always close at hand. On-board unti-aware calculation and symbolic differentiation/integration is a must! Anything more complex than that, and I make a MathCAD sheet.
ArcanaNoir said:You'd think they'd have improved these in the last decade... Where's my backlit screen? Come ON... Features people! It's time for features!
QuarkCharmer said:I hear that the HP's are much better if you can adjust to the "RPN" format (whatever that is).
lisab said:Reverse Polish Notation .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_Polish_notation
Proton Soup said:my first HP calculator when i went to engineering school was the HP-15C (looks like the 11C above).
Jaynte said:No symbolic integrals and equation solver but that's always more easy to do by hand i think.
Jack21222 said:You're only saying that because you haven't tried it.
qspeechc said:Real men don't use calculators.
hotvette said:I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for my very first calculator - an HP35 I purchased in 1973 for $395. That was a huge amount of money back then but well worth it.
zomgwtf said:Many of you guys talk about using the graphing calculators for school... were you guys able to use them during tests/exams? It's always been a condition since high school that no graphing calculators were to be used during tests/exams. Even through college/university physics and math (chemistry they didn't care same with a few other courses but that's because you're just really doing simple math so the graphing calculator gives no advantage really)
Mind you I haven't taken upper level maths or physics yet so maybe that'll change.
zomgwtf said:Many of you guys talk about using the graphing calculators for school... were you guys able to use them during tests/exams? It's always been a condition since high school that no graphing calculators were to be used during tests/exams. Even through college/university physics and math (chemistry they didn't care same with a few other courses but that's because you're just really doing simple math so the graphing calculator gives no advantage really)
Mind you I haven't taken upper level maths or physics yet so maybe that'll change.
BobG said:Funny thing is that most of the students don't know how to use their graphing calculators well enough for it to give them much advantage over a standard scientific calculator.
ArcanaNoir said:I made learning to use my calculator effectively a part of my homework. When I would do a problem set, I would consult my calculator manual to see what my calculator could do that was relevant to expediting the problem and confirming my answer. I always had to show all my work anyway, so it really was mostly to confirm answers.
jtbell said:I considered the 15C, but I finally decided that for the kinds of calculations I did (and still do), complex numbers, matrices, and numerical integration weren't worth the higher price, so I went with the 11C.
Last summer I found a good deal on a HP 50g at Best Buy and bought one, but I haven't really had the time to teach myself how to use it effectively yet. The 11C is still my workhorse at home.