Fuck the TI-89.
I have had both the 89 and my trusty HP-48GX. I always went back to the HP.
I sold the TI-89.
The HP is worth more now than it was new. Not that's in investment, I just find it curious.
Fuck the TI-89.
I have had both the 89 and my trusty HP-48GX. I always went back to the HP.
I sold the TI-89.
The HP is worth more now than it was new. Not that's in investment, I just find it curious.
I have and use an HP 32SII RPN. Big whoop, right? This model is selling on ebay and Amazon for ~$200 used. I paid ~$50 for it circa 1995. It's a nice calculator but I don't get it.
*drools*
mine was about $350. We used them for calculator competitions in high school. the price is so high because its the best for these kinds of competitions.
I don't understand it either. HP and Casio are starting to make some really nice graphing calculators, but they haven't seen to have taken off yet.
Granted, a lot of standardized tests won't let you use them. So you'd be at a disadvantage like I was using a calculator you aren't familiar with.
why would TI drop the price if people are still willing to pay for it?
I've never really seen the point of a graphing calculator. If you want to graph functions use MathCad or whatever the modern equivalent is. I also no longer see much virtue in stat functions on calculators. If data is worth keying in, it is worth putting in a spreadsheet and cranking out the stats that way. Stat functions on calculators made sense 20-25 years ago but no more.
*drools*
Mine was about $350. We used them for calculator competitions in high school. The price is so high because its the best for these kinds of competitions.
The good old days of graphing calculators.
Pro-tip: You could use the programming features as note takers to sneak equations and formulas into tests.
Sounds like you just weren't smart enough to understand the true power of the TI-89. Don't ever speak it's name again. You are not worthy. Everyone knows this.
They have to charge that much still, because they pay for lobbying state departments of education, spamming message boards for math teachers, etc. They've managed to get TI-83+ incorporated into tons of textbooks. Yet, in general, math students are no better off for this. In fact, I'd argue that the average student actually knows LESS because of graphing calculators.
TI has pretty much cornered the market in NY. All students are *required* by the state to have a graphing calculator for algebra, geometry, and algebra II. I teach Geometry. The vast majority of my students rarely even needed a scientific calculator - just a few times for trig functions, and for square roots. Other than that, the arithmetic was pretty simple.
However, NY also came out about 5 years ago and said that school districts may NOT require students to purchase graphing calculators. They can't even charge a refundable deposit to borrow one from the school. NY state schools are required to provide the calculators to the students. So, there's even less incentive for TI to lower prices. The only distinction is which districts are still using the 83+/84+, and which are using the N-spire.
It's absolutely amazing how far it's gone toward technology - many students can solve problems ONLY if they have the same calculator that they learned on. Their only explanation of how they solved a problem is "I pushed buttons." Probability problems have been posted here in OT quite a few times. A simple to understand and calculate probability problem might be, if the probability of a player winning at a particular game in a casino is 3/7, what is the probability of that player winning at least 8 out of 10 games? To solve this problem (to meet the NY standards) requires zero understanding - a student just needs to know which buttons to push on the TI-83+ (or beyond) calculator. Well, at least to answer the questions on the state assessment. That wouldn't fly in my classroom... You do it the long way. If you're really nice, I'll show you how to do that, and 50 other questions on the graphing calculator in the two weeks before the state assessment.
Why aren't other companies making graphing calculators?
It's HP, TI, Casio... and that is it.
Does TI hold a bunch of patents or something? They can't after this long.
Why doesn't someone make a $50 TI-89? They would slaughter TI in a few years.
I really wish more teachers were like you. Back in my highschool days, none of my teachers would let me touch a calculator for anything. All the way up to calculus (and even through most of calculus). Once I got to college, it was completely different. Most teachers almost expected me to used a calculator (which I resisted for as long as possible. But dang, doing double and triple integrals is very time consuming).
It was a different world all together. Most students didn't have a clue what "taking the derivative" actually meant. Nor did they understand what an integral was useful for. It was shocking. You go to an engineer class and the teacher says "Ok, we need to find the rate that equation changes, what do we do." after waiting a few awkward seconds (because I usually answer questions, I don't like to, honest, but nobody else will) its embarrassing to be the only one that knows the answer.
Calculators are great tools, but using them in education seems to remove the understanding behind what is going on.
I used my HP-48G for physics, thermodynamics, dif-eq etc. back in the mid 90's. In fact, I believe it's still sitting in my desk. Way easier to program, and had a crapload of equations pre-loaded.
Never understood the big deal with TI's.
Fuck the TI-89.
I have had both the 89 and my trusty HP-48GX. I always went back to the HP.
I sold the TI-89.
The HP is worth more now than it was new. Not that's in investment, I just find it curious.