Calculators?

[Yan Wang]

HP 49G+

or

TI89 with the RPN emulator


Learn to use reverse polish notation calculators! It'll make your life much easier.

[Kyle Love]

I have a TI-84+Silver edition. I figured I would just wait to buy an 89 until I could actually use it. (After ACT/SAT) I love the one I have. It is reallllllly easy to use once you play around with it. The puzzle pack is espeacially fun when you are done with stuff in class.

Tip- Just play around with it and see what stuff does.

[Manoel]

I have a HP 49G+ and it's great, much better than the previous models.
It's funny how you don't find Texas calculators here in Brazil, even though I heard they are much better than HP's. A professor of mine has an old TI-something that looks like a spacecraft (you need both hands to HOLD its HANDLES, and it actually looks like you're playing some video game) and it is amazing, much more capable than my HP.
Cons:
My calculator has the annoying habit of randomly changing modes from radians to degrees and vice-versa, all the time. Forget about it and start getting weird results and bad grades!

[CrazyCarl461]

Originally Posted by Kyle45

I figured I would just wait to buy an 89 until I could actually use it. (After ACT/SAT)

I was allowed to use the 89 on the SAT back when I took it (gosh, over four years ago now). As far as I know you can still use it. It can pretty much do anything on the math portion but you have to know how to use it right. If you don't practice with it you will just be wasting valuable time. At first it may seem unfair to use such a powerful grapher on the test but you should give yourself every advantage within the rules. Symbolic manipulation is where this model shines above the rest (the others you have to use actual values). The 89 is one of the few things I have purchased in my life that has actually been worth every penny.

If it is not allowed on the SAT any more, please correct me!

[Ryan Foley]

Sweet thread.

I had a TI-83 all through high school and freshman year of college. Really easy to use and it never breaks no matter how many times I drop it (so far that is).

Over the summer, my roommate recommended buying a TI-89 (titanium) for calc 3, and I must say, it is a great machine. Our calc 3 professor lets us use them on tests, although just putting an answer your 89 spit out without showing any work wont get you many points. I like how it can do integration and actually show you the integral itself (with the symbol and lower and upper limits) rather than the integral listed as a calculator operation followed by the constraints. Plus the cross product function comes in really handy, as does the ability to see the exact answer and an approximate one.

I still use my TI-83 for stuff outside of school, mostly when I'm designing or building things that dont require calculus.