Which calculator is your favourite and why?

[Maxwells Demon]

like the title, which calculator is your favourite and why?

I'm using a Texas Instruments Ti-89 Titanium, and I'm very happy with it at the moment. What about Hewlett-Packard anyone has experience with those?

Do you think that calculators will have colour screens and cameras in the future like cell phones have now??

 

[rnation121]

I'd suggest sticking with the TI if that's all you have ever used.

Learning how to input calculations using RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) is a royal pain if everything you have been taught up to this point has been using traditional algebra input.

The TI-89 is my favorite as well.

 

[tehfrr]

I use the TI Voyage 200. Its my favorite because its the one I know how to use the best. The alphanumeric keypad is nice for entering variables. Big screen dosent hurt either

 

[Astronuc]

I like my trusty HP-41 CX , which I've had for about 25 years. The only problem is find those little N batteries.

 

[DaConfusion]

TI-89! I've had mine since high school so no TITANIUM edition. Love it, it does everything I know and whatever I do not know. TI also has a flash application for mech engr students/professionals with all the statics, dynamics and thermo formulas built in also steam tables that you can input. I believe the program can interpolate to help you save time.

 

[Maxwells Demon]

Any of you guys know where to download plugins to TI-89 Titanium ?

 

[z-component]

You can get TI apps from places like ticalc.org. Also, I have to say I like my TI-89 as well, even though I don't use it much these days for Calc 2 or Linear Algebra.

 

[marcusl]

I like my trusty HP-41 CX , which I've had for about 25 years. The only problem is find those little N batteries.

I still use my old HP-15. That may beat you in terms of age and functionality (or lack thereof). I use Matlab for anything more complicated.

 

[Integral]

I don't use a calculator much any more, but back when I was playing engineer I found my HP-28c to be great at unit conversions. At one point I was looking for furnace insulation and comparing values of thermal conductivity of various materials. There is an amazing array of unit combinations for this parameter. The 28 has a huge database of fundamental physical units in ROM, you can then combine the fundamentals units into higher level combinations. So I created the various different thermal conductivity unit variations saved them in memory and was able to reliably and repeatably convert to metric with a few key strokes.

 

[Integral]

I still use my old HP-15. That may beat you in terms of age and functionality (or lack thereof). I use Matlab for anything more complicated.

The 41cx is an ancestor to the 15. The 41 was the pinnacle of the first geneation HP caluclators. It has the same form factor as the original HP35. The 15 was kinda early in the 2nd generation.

What the 41 has that the 15 lacks is connectivity. The 41 has (check me on this Astronuc!) 4 ports for rom moduls or even external inputs. These are what made it the ulitmate engineering calculator for years. It may well be that there is no rival to it yet.


As a side note:
My greatest regret is that I never owned a 41. A personal friend played a significant role in the layout of the first 41 circiut board.

 

[marcusl]

Guess I got the order of introduction backwards. I remember friends who had the 41 would swap their stored programs in and out, and connect it to printers and things.

I bought the 15C because it multiplied and even solved equations with complex numbers, and also calculated matrix eigenvalues/vectors. Haven't used those features in 20 years or so because it's so unweildy to enter and read out using the keypad and single-number display.

 

[Integral]

Guess I got the order of introduction backwards. I remember friends who had the 41 would swap their stored programs in and out, and connect it to printers and things.

I bought the 15C because it multiplied and even solved equations with complex numbers, and also calculated matrix eigenvalues/vectors. Haven't used those features in 20 years or so because it's so unweildy to enter and read out using the keypad and single-number display.

Yeah, that is the biggest draw back to the old character based displays. My 28 has a 4 line display, this is one of the original graphic calculators with machine algebra capabilities. I found it pretty useless. Anything that was simple enough to be readably displayed was so simple that there was no need for the machine algebra. If it was complex enough for the machine algebra to be somewhat usefully, the results where nearly impossible to read from the crowded display.

 

[Astronuc]

The 41cx is an ancestor to the 15. The 41 was the pinnacle of the first geneation HP caluclators. It has the same form factor as the original HP35. The 15 was kinda early in the 2nd generation.

What the 41 has that the 15 lacks is connectivity. The 41 has (check me on this Astronuc!) 4 ports for rom moduls or even external inputs. These are what made it the ulitmate engineering calculator for years. It may well be that there is no rival to it yet.

Yeah - it had 4 ports and one could purchase any number of modules. I purchased 2 modules, HP-41 Advantage and Circuits 1. But I've misplaced the manuals. And I should have bought more modules, but then I had limited funds.

 

[fredwangster]

ti-89 titanium all the way!
i beat all my classmates in math who have puny ti-83 plus
mwahaha succumb to my superior calculating power!
:}

 

[z-component]

Hmm... computing power shouldn't be what makes you superior in math class!

 

[Llama77]

Ti calculators are prone to way to many errors, so I stick with my Hp 50G

 

[imabug]

I still have and use my trusty 28-S, but like Astronuc, finding those N size batteries is starting to get a little tough (thank goodness for my local Batteries Plus store). Plus the 28-S only uses 3 batteries, but I've only seen N batteries sold in pairs, so one always ends up getting wasted.

 

[Rogerio]

I still have a working HP35. And a 48G+ , a 32S, and a 32SII, too.
But I love my 42S.

 

[imabug]

I just replaced the batteries in my 28S and have an extra N cell lying around. Anybody want/need it?

 

[Rogerio]

I still have a working HP35. And a 48G+ , a 32S, and a 32SII, too.
But I love my 42S.

The HP42-S is RPN (all of them are) and it fits into my pocket (the 48G is more powerfull, but it is too big).

I refuse to buy a HP33S - that "chevron style" is too ugly.

 

[crxyem]

I've used the TI-85 for years now, just picked up a TI-89 Titanium. I love them both.