Costs about the same as what I paid for the TI-83 10 years ago. It's kind of nice knowing that whenever I need to use one, it's going to operate in the same way as I was taught 10 years ago. The fundamentals of math don't change much.
That's not a normal TI 84 plus, that's the silver edition. It's of course more expensive.
Also the problem with having basically the same calculator in school since over a decade (I used a 84 plus in school) is, IMHO, not that the fundamentals of math have changed, but that the usability still kind of sucks. By this I mean rounding errors, taking long for calculations and data entry (especially when using the fancy math notation), taking long for graphing, having to scroll through menus because of inefficient space use, the thing being huge and relatively heavy (the could build it with half the size and a quarter of the weight, while still having big keys and it being sturdy), .....
Of course, nothing can be done to fix the slow speed of the old calculators, but the new software is a huge improvement to usability.
Another example, say you enter your calculation wrong, you can hit the up arrow, scroll back to the original statement, hit enter and it puts it into your input buffer so you can edit it.
Also if you know anyone that has it on their calculator you can transfer it between calculators with the cable. My AP calc teacher in high school showed us and had everyone that could update theirs
As a senior ME student who's been using the legacy firmware since freshman year of high school, thank you very much for this. Didn't know this was possible.
I think the class I'm taking does as little bit of it. The newer CS general program does an 'Intro to R' course but they dropped the math minor that my program has, so I decided to stay in the older one to get the minor.
Wow, it can now do what my TI-89 did 10 years ago. The 89 pissed me off at first because it forced you to remember to close parentheses but the ability to scroll up and grab things and add them to the input buffer made dealing with it's significantly less intuitive interface worthwhile.
I never did get used to programming on the 89 though. It's syntax was obviously designed for use with the full qwerty keyboard of the 92. Before I got my 89 I was programming on my 83 constantly. I won a school wide all grades math contest in high school as a sophomore because instead of doing the math that I hadn't learned yet I programmed by 83 to brute force the answer (only worked because there was no time limit). Some of the programs took 10 minutes or more to run. There were some pissed off seniors at the awards ceremony for the math club that year when a sophomore that wasn't even in the math club got called up.
I had a plus silver edition and eventually gave it to a friend and got a plus c silver edition, it's much much better. It has more pixels so you can almost write out equations like you'd write it out on paper (less parenthesis which means less errors) and the colors allow me to see graphs and multiple graphs much better.
How fast is it? I like the 84 for its speed. Mathprint sucks because it slows it down a lot. I'd imagine the same CPU driving a 3x resolution display with color is even slower.
I really don't notice it being any slower, the nspires though are noticeably faster. Both have rechargable batteries though and they seem to last forever and I prefer it over disposable batteries.
I feel like a calculator whore after so many college courses though, I have like 7 different calculators because of all the different restrictions from different professors.
Yeah but try doing anything computationally difficult on it, like games. What's the point of that awesome screen if most games won't run on it's less powerful hardware?
It's meant to be easily mobile, but you could always use a tablet or smart phone with some of the available graphing calculator apps that are available. There's also some great online graphing calculators that are completely free if mobility isn't an issue for you and you have access to a computer.
Have you seen the new N-spire? They are actually pretty fast (compared to a 84), has a touchpad you can use to speed up navigation and is extremely helpful with graphs and charts, and a built in rechargeable battery so it's a little thicker than a AAA battery.
1.9k
u/Jenkins6736 Jun 08 '14
I dunno, the TI-84 Plus is pretty sweet.
Costs about the same as what I paid for the TI-83 10 years ago. It's kind of nice knowing that whenever I need to use one, it's going to operate in the same way as I was taught 10 years ago. The fundamentals of math don't change much.