# Calculator for Mechanical Engineering

Gokul43201
Staff Emeritus
Gold Member
FredGarvin said:
I can see where you're coming from on that one. The only thing I see with these types of calculators is that they are marketed primarily to students, especially high school students. I have NEVER seen an add for them that depicts an engineer or engineering student churning out integrals as part of an ad campaign. I see this as a real pitty. IMO it's another step in dumbing kids down for the sake of expediency and ease. In most people's hands, these are small idiot boxes that the kids simply punch buttons and parrot what comes out. We're bringing kids up through the ranks already dependent on something other than their brain.
When I took an entrance test for the college I went to in India, we were not allowed to use calculators. We had to multiply 4 sig-fig numbers using logarithm tables. Fun eh ?

Gokul43201 said:
When I took an entrance test for the college I went to in India, we were not allowed to use calculators. We had to multiply 4 sig-fig numbers using logarithm tables. Fun eh ?
The battery died on my calculator during a Thermodynamics final(got an A in the class though) and I ended up using the table of logs in the back of the book to solve most of the problems by hand. I finished before most of the other students oddly enough. I thank my father for this because he wouldn't let me get a calculator until I could prove to him that I could do the work in my head or by hand. I'm not talking 4+4=8 either. He made me do powers and common roots(memorization) as well as long division and multiplication of decimals and the like. This is a needed skill IMO and I agree with the premise of dumbing down students and how bad and rampant it is; however, being able to enter an equation and its upper/lower limits then having the calculator spit out the integral or arclength or the like is soooo nice.

PS: my 86 has survived numerous coolant soakings from working in a machine shop.

Cliff_J
I'd give a 3rd/4th vote to working within the bounds of what the school suggests/requires.

I was happier with a $28 HP calc that used reverse notation (2 enter 2 plus = 4, not the regular 2 plus 2 = 4 type) since I could throw it in my bookbag and not freak out like carrying around a$300 HP48. The 48 is also more difficult to use than any TI variety, and has (had?) no hard protection for the screen whereas the TIs did.

Also, in CalcII we were allowed to use any calculator we wanted even on tests, the professor actually had tested me in front of the class (as a demonstration) to integrate stuff the HP48 would not perform to make the other students realise there was no cheating with the fancy calculator, it had to be done by hand.

BobG said:
Almost, brewnog, almost. Blame jaap for resurrecting the thread. :rofl:
You are very welcome

I personally use a TI-92 Plus. I bought it 6 years ago and still argue that it was the best \$200 I ever spent. I use it for EVERYTHING!

Cheers...