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i'm aout to goto college into mechanical and electrical enginering wiht minors in bio and cs. what calculator do i need? or what caculators have you used in college and had a good time with them?

You need a good scientific calculator, they're available for about 10-15 bucks. They will not let you use graphing ones for many courses, and for most actual math (calculus), you really don't need them because it's all analyitical. A scientific calculator lets you do trig and logarithimic operations (as well as good ol' algebra), which you'll need to do on some tests. Unless you're really nuts, and you wanted to use a slide rule.

...Which isn't to say you shouldn't bring your graphing calculator. In my signal processing course it's kind of helpful to have the polynomial roots function and complex exponentials, but they'll probably make you buy software for your computer that does all that (MATLAB, Maple, etc). I haven't used a graphing calc and I've been fine for two years, anyways.

I've always liked the Texas TI series, TI83 and TI82+ is what I've used..

Not sure if thoose cover what you need though..


They cost around 1000skr, or ~$100 ($1 = ~6.8skr)

Although I'm not in uni yet, I know that there is a lot of non calculator stuff. Pretty much, use your calculator as little as you can. Differentiation, Integration etc you can do in your head. Logs you need a simple calculator. They are cheap and functional. If you are doing mech/elec engineering, then they will make you go on comps for the advanced stuff.

If you HAVE to get a graphing calculator, get a TI-83+. Here its quite expensive, I don't know in other countries. You also want to get a link cable for the computer (I don't know whether they come with one) so that you can actually download programs on to it.

Good luck.

I have T83+ Silver Edition (more flash memory than the standard
83+ and 2.5x (or something) the cpu speed)

Many tests say the HP series is better but I have never tested any
so I can't tell... Anyway, if you want to program on it there's probably
a bigger community for the TI calcs.

...Don't forget that
1) I'm probably biased because TI is more or less the school standard in Sweden
2) Graphing calculators -> big display -> play games on boring classes :p

You're majoring in both ME and EE? Planning on being a professional student, or what?

As far as calculators go, I have both a TI-89 and a cheap scientific. I use the scientific on exams where graphing calculators aren't allowed, and the TI-89 for everything else.

Sure, you can do simple differentiation/integration in your head or on paper, but once you get into more advanced courses you'll want the graphing calculator, especially for exams.

I'd say that the best thing that you could get is a TI84. It just came out over the spring, and is essentially an upgraded TI83. It's faster, has more stuff you can play with:

Quote:A built-in USB port with cable
30 preloaded Handheld Software Applications (Apps), including Cabri® Jr. and Periodic Table
9x the memory of the TI-83 Plus for storing up to 94 Apps
2.5x the speed of the TI-83 Plus
Includes Official AP** Biology exam review questions
Interchangeable faceplates (available separately)

USB port... mmm....

86 and 89 are good too, and have better programming capabilities One (or both?) of those has a grayscale LCD (better games). but they're less common. 83 is pretty much standard all around, (many many more games) and the 84 is 100% compatible with it.

Because of the new 84, the price of the TI83 is dropping, so if you just want a calculator to use for class and stuff, you'll probably want to grab one of those.

Just my .02

--pr0gger

so on some exams they wont let you use graphing calculators? i figure i will be using a comp and multi meeter later in the years. i guess i could alwas ask the school.

Calculus 1, 2, 3 and Diff EQ aren't calculating classes, so there's no need for one. If you had one, you really wouldn't do anything with it. And in physics (1 and 2, at least), there's never any need to graph anything, so they ban it to keep you from punching formulas into it, something I did all the time in high school physics . Some of my Comp E classes do let you use a graphing calculator, but they never make the problems such that you can't do without one. For instance, they might have a something that makes you use the quadratic equation to find complex exponentials on a z-domain plot or something. Graphing calculator's nifty, but not necessary.

I don't know about your computer classes, but all of mine, (CS and a few Comp E courses) just have a plain 'ol chalkboard lecture. Then your homework and labs have you doing actual coding. The tests will be handwritten and have you write code, or trace code, or debug code, and such by hand.

Again, ask your professors when you take the courses. The school probably can't tell you that stuff (maybe the department head), but if they do require a calculator you probably won't really need it for at least a week or two. And no matter where you go (campus store, etc) a graphing calculator is around 100 bucks (or at least it was when I was in high school, they have these newfangled TI-84's and whatnot).

If you are buying a calculator, buy an 89, or one that can do advanced algebraic functions. That's the stuff you'll need a graphing calculator for, and you probably won't for at least a year or two.

i took calc 1 and i never used my TI -82 much. i'm in stat now and the TI-82 doesnt have all the build in stat programs that the 83+ has. in fact my stat book has TI-83+ examples and shows you how to do the problems using the 83+. so when i comes time for the AP stat test i would like to have all those programs on a calculator. i have already made a few but i dont know how many and how to make more. thats the other reason why i would like a new TI calculator. i could barrow the teachers i guess. my friend has the 89 and he has no clue how to use it to it's potencial. we even had a guy from TI come in and tell us how to do some basic stat stuff wiht our TI-80's. that was fun. are not the 83, 83+, 83+ sliver, 84, 84+ and 84+sliver all the same except for memory and processor speed? i know the 84 have more build in programs b/c htey have more memory. the 83+ is what i was thinking of geting b/c it is pretty much the standard now but it will soon change to the 84+ sliver i think. the 89 is just uber power full. i just dont think i really need to be able to do 3d graphing. plianer geomitry? also the calculator is for progrming fun. i'm having fun wiht my TI-82, it's just a pain cause there is no comp cable i can barrow from any one.