Calculus, what calculator?

[Kirby]

Originally posted by: 0
Calculus should be done without any sort of calculator.

Regardless if it should or shouldn't, wouldn't you use it if you had the opportunity?

 

[alphatarget1]

TI-84, real men do calculus with their heads.

 

[Cattlegod]

TI 89

 

[ed21x]

Originally posted by: nkgreen
The 89 differentiates and integrates. The choice should be obvious.

i thought this was obvious. why should there be any comparison between the 84 and 89 when one can do every function of the other and a whole lot more?

 

[Oil]

Use a TI-83+. That is what the pros use

 

[RapidSnail]

HP 50G+

 

[ICRS]

You should only get the 89 if you can already do Calculus without a calculator. See if you can solve this problem by hand. If you can then the 89 is ok to get.

f(x) = 1 and with x having domain 0 to 1.
f(y) = 1/2 and with y having domain 0 to 2.
f(x,y) = 1/2 with x having domain 0 to 1 and y having domain 0 to 2.

let v be a transformation of x+y

what is f(v) and what is the domain of v.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: nkgreen

Originally posted by: 0
Calculus should be done without any sort of calculator.

Regardless if it should or shouldn't, wouldn't you use it if you had the opportunity?

it does not even matter. Any decent course will require you to do the work by hand. Lots of time you have to set up the equation and intergal your self, so a calculator wont even help.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: nismotigerwvu
Wow, you're lucky, the math department here doesn't allow calculators in any of the calc courses. Sure, they keep the basic arithmetic basic but everything is by hand. So, I can't make a calculator recommendation but I can say I'm one jealous SOB right now. Pencil and paper calc III is a whore.

Read the quoted message. It varies greatly from school to school. I teach calculus & personally don't care if my students have or don't have a graphing calculator to use; occasionally I'll let them know in advance that graphing calculators won't be allowed on a particular test. (And, for one particular quiz - Newton's method, I'll even provide graphing calculators to those that don't have them; the arithmetic is a pita on a scientific calculator.

I even provide the graphs (I create them in Mathematica) on a lot of the tests when the graphs would be useful, in order to
A. Level the playing field (in terms of the time it takes to complete the exam)
B. Save the students the 25 seconds it takes to actually graph it themselves. Any idiot can graph a function on a graphing calculator; why waste my students' time?

By the end of the year (plus having me for a year of pre-calculus the year before), none of my students rely on a graphing calculator. One of my former students came home last night and said her Calc II class is "a fucking joke." A TI-89 is required for her course, but she hasn't even picked it up yet, because there's absolutely no need for it if you know how to do calculus. Everything they're learning, "we did last December. The professor does a horrible job explaining it though." Meanwhile, the sophomores taking that course are struggling and failing, while she has a 100 average.

Compare that to one of my friend's daughters, who is attending a similar university: her professor absolutely forbids them from using a graphing calculator, even for simple graphs. Well, simple is a relative word. But, if you're looking for the area between two curves, and have a graph in front of you, it makes the problem really simple. She learned to rely 100% on her graphing calculator for creating graphs and simply can't sketch a graph of the intersection of a couple of parabolas in the about 15 seconds that the prof gives them. While she also already knows the current material they're covering in college, thanks to her high school class, she's struggling because she has to learn how to do it without a calculator.

Conclusion: make sure you can do the stuff without a calculator. Wait until you find out if your school allows graphing calculators. At that point, a TI-83 is more than sufficient for Calc I or Calc II. But, if you're going into engineering, a TI-89 that handles even more of the work is the better choice of a graphing calculator.

On the other hand

 

[TridenT]

2c

 

[Tiamat]

TI-86 is good enough. anything it can't do you should just do by hand or through matlab/maple anyways.

 

[ICRS]

Originally posted by: TridenTBoy3555
Meh.. I'll probably need a calculator; I forgot just about everything from my calculus class in high school. :-/

Originally posted by: ICRS
You should only get the 89 if you can already do Calculus without a calculator. See if you can solve this problem by hand. If you can then the 89 is ok to get.

f(x) = 1 and with x having domain 0 to 1.
f(y) = 1/2 and with y having domain 0 to 2.
f(x,y) = 1/2 with x having domain 0 to 1 and y having domain 0 to 2.

let v be a transformation of x+y

what is f(v) and what is the domain of v.

I have no clue. I don't even remember what domain is.. *sigh* My memory, it's diein'!

Domain is x-values... range is y-values.... Gah... I can't remember. What would be a transformation for X+Y?

think jacobian matrix

 

[irishScott]

My old TI-83 Plus is still going strong.

That said, I can only really use it on the homework, and even then the homework is designed to not use the calculator. Everything is by hand so you actually learn the stuff.

 

[TridenT]

2c

 

[ICRS]

Originally posted by: TridenTBoy3555

Originally posted by: ICRS

Originally posted by: TridenTBoy3555
Meh.. I'll probably need a calculator; I forgot just about everything from my calculus class in high school. :-/

Originally posted by: ICRS
You should only get the 89 if you can already do Calculus without a calculator. See if you can solve this problem by hand. If you can then the 89 is ok to get.

f(x) = 1 and with x having domain 0 to 1.
f(y) = 1/2 and with y having domain 0 to 2.
f(x,y) = 1/2 with x having domain 0 to 1 and y having domain 0 to 2.

let v be a transformation of x+y

what is f(v) and what is the domain of v.

I have no clue. I don't even remember what domain is.. *sigh* My memory, it's diein'!

Domain is x-values... range is y-values.... Gah... I can't remember. What would be a transformation for X+Y?

think jacobian matrix

I don't think we ever got to that. :-/

EDIT: Yeah, we never got to the jacobian matrix. That is at the end of my current calculus book and I am sure it is in the one I used before... We never got to all that stuff. It was just Calc I and Calc II that I took.

Ok, at my school this was more of a Calc 3 problem.

 

[TridenT]

2c

 

[ItTheCow]

Originally posted by: RapidSnail
HP 50G+

YES.

RPN for life!

 

[RaistlinZ]

<--- Still using a TI-83 I got in high school back in 1997. :heart:

My advice would be to go for the best one available since it will last you a long, long time.

 

[TridenT]

2c

 

[dbk]

89 will carry you through high school and college.

 

[Delita]

Only true ballers roll with the HP 12c

 

[TridenT]

2c

 

[Shadow Conception]

They force you to do all math in Calc completely by hand? Means they make you do (746.04)(6351.0000324)/(3246.4) without a calculator?

 

[drinkmorejava]

TI-89.

Just tried the 50g for a week and couldn't stand it. I suppose it might be faster if you really know what you're doing, but most of the time it's just a pain in the ass to use. You can't even do single parentheses; you have to insert two then delete the extra one. Basically, any error you make takes 5 times as long to fix. Also, the symbolic formula portion of the CAS system doesn't integrate well with the main screen. In the 89, it will always display a formula as it would actually look in a text book, but the 50g will only display it like that if you open up the CAS editor to type the formula in. Also, you can't insert previous formulas into a new formula by just scrolling through you history and selecting what you want, you have to do an actual copy paste.

Maybe I?m wrong about one of these, but if I am, you?ll notice that the manual kind of sucks.

 

[Savij]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: nismotigerwvu
Wow, you're lucky, the math department here doesn't allow calculators in any of the calc courses. Sure, they keep the basic arithmetic basic but everything is by hand. So, I can't make a calculator recommendation but I can say I'm one jealous SOB right now. Pencil and paper calc III is a whore.

Read the quoted message. It varies greatly from school to school. I teach calculus & personally don't care if my students have or don't have a graphing calculator to use; occasionally I'll let them know in advance that graphing calculators won't be allowed on a particular test. (And, for one particular quiz - Newton's method, I'll even provide graphing calculators to those that don't have them; the arithmetic is a pita on a scientific calculator.

I even provide the graphs (I create them in Mathematica) on a lot of the tests when the graphs would be useful, in order to
A. Level the playing field (in terms of the time it takes to complete the exam)
B. Save the students the 25 seconds it takes to actually graph it themselves. Any idiot can graph a function on a graphing calculator; why waste my students' time?

By the end of the year (plus having me for a year of pre-calculus the year before), none of my students rely on a graphing calculator. One of my former students came home last night and said her Calc II class is "a fucking joke." A TI-89 is required for her course, but she hasn't even picked it up yet, because there's absolutely no need for it if you know how to do calculus. Everything they're learning, "we did last December. The professor does a horrible job explaining it though." Meanwhile, the sophomores taking that course are struggling and failing, while she has a 100 average.

Compare that to one of my friend's daughters, who is attending a similar university: her professor absolutely forbids them from using a graphing calculator, even for simple graphs. Well, simple is a relative word. But, if you're looking for the area between two curves, and have a graph in front of you, it makes the problem really simple. She learned to rely 100% on her graphing calculator for creating graphs and simply can't sketch a graph of the intersection of a couple of parabolas in the about 15 seconds that the prof gives them. While she also already knows the current material they're covering in college, thanks to her high school class, she's struggling because she has to learn how to do it without a calculator.

Conclusion: make sure you can do the stuff without a calculator. Wait until you find out if your school allows graphing calculators. At that point, a TI-83 is more than sufficient for Calc I or Calc II. But, if you're going into engineering, a TI-89 that handles even more of the work is the better choice of a graphing calculator.

On the other hand

Only reply worth reading.