Which Calculator type?

[anon]

Originally Posted by economicus

one of my friends has a calculator which can transform numbers like 0.3333 back into fraction 1/3, show chi-square distribution values and so on. It can help save some time during exams. Though, my calculator is now 10 years old and is still working (Sharp EL-546L). But I hardly ever really needed more than + - x :

That should be very handy

I'd go with a TI-89. Though I admit I rarely use a calculator anymore, a symbolic calculator like the TI 89 can come in handy to do expansions/factoring/basic algebra that I really should be able to do by hand

I looked up TI-89 at these -

TI-89 series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Calculus,Differential Equations,Algebra,SAT/PSAT,Number Theory,Trig,Matrix,Finite Math,Conics Made Easy for the TI89/Titanium/92+/Voyage200

It does seem a handy tool and from what I can figure it could be allowed and I hope my dept allows me to use this as smileysquared points out!

I guess I will mail a grad to see this is acceptable..

[IrrationalActor]

Emailing is definitely a good idea, it would be terrible to get a calculator that the program doesn't permit.

If you do go with an 89, I would go with the Titanium Edition rather than an older model. The Titanium Edition has a faster processor and a few more statistical applications built in that might be useful.

You could upload the applications to a regular TI 89, but if your calculator crashes (which will happen at one point or another) the applications will all be deleted.

[treblekicker]

Originally Posted by IrrationalActor

I'd go with a TI-89. Though I admit I rarely use a calculator anymore, a symbolic calculator like the TI 89 can come in handy to do expansions/factoring/basic algebra that I really should be able to do by hand.

if you aren't in front of a computer, it sure saves you a lot of time calculating eigenvalues and eigenvectors!

[economicus]

TI-89... that's exactly the calculator I was talking about.

[sonicskat]

There should be no reason why you need anything more than a 4-function calculator. In fact, my stats prof banned us from using anything more sophisticated than a very very basic scientific calculator. Spending the money on a TI-89 can be very handy, but there is nothing there that you can done with the help of either mathmatica or a couple minutes of harder contemplation.

[asianeconomist]

Originally Posted by sonicskat

There should be no reason why you need anything more than a 4-function calculator. In fact, my stats prof banned us from using anything more sophisticated than a very very basic scientific calculator. Spending the money on a TI-89 can be very handy, but there is nothing there that you can done with the help of either mathmatica or a couple minutes of harder contemplation.

My view exactly. Some of the bewildering capabilities of these machines got me quizzed about whether we were still discussing calculators.

Calculators : Crashing. Oh my.....the only time my calculator crashes is when I physically throw it to squash something.

[anon]

Thanks you all for so much information!

I knew about the Graphic Calculators but never expected them to be so powerful so it was a new learning for me . I have e-mailed a grad to see if TI-89 is acceptable for my program but at the same I also feel that my good old sci-calc could do the job

I will be back with another query soon!! :P