[at-l] OT: Querie to Math Wizzes

[Tom McGinnis]

### My advice: "Wait!" I just got in from giving a statistics final, and will give a algebra final in 48 hours. From my view, calculators have come to resemble tv/media remote controls, in that their basic functions are ergonomically hidden, and their ultimately huge breadth of functionality is masked, useless, even *counter*-productive.

Most of the time in my classes, I TOLD students to ignore the 'stat' functions, and give me all the intermediate calculations, show me what you can do, and let me award partial credit for close answers. It is *rare*, actually, that the functionality of these calculators is used even partially. Furthermore, this was my experience in teaching finance/quant-business topics years ago, and my personal experience in *learning* these topics before that. I come upon more and more teachers who are driving the students to the most basic equations/solutions early, and PC-based programs once the groundwork has been laid. Skip the fancy-pants calculator.

So! I would strongly recommend letting the reality of the coursework steer the choice in calculator, not the calculated chaos thunk up by over-reaching marketing types seeking to separate over-anxious parents/students from their money. You won't buy wisdom or success in your calculator, and the basic engineering/statistical/algebraic functions haven't changed since Napoleon's artillary aimed at the Mexicans.

(Jus' to combine thoughts.)

sloetoe
whostruggledthewholeway

+/-/*/'/'/√x/x²/xⁿ/e(2.7182)/ln (natural log)/log/n!(factorial)/sine/cosine/tangent/co-tangent/ Hmmmmm, I think that's about it. Oh! And a good pair of parentheses. 


--- On Wed, 5/6/09, snodrog5 at gmail.com <snodrog5 at gmail.com> wrote:
> That one will work for her all the way
> through college. 3x the memory of the old TI 89 is loads of
> memory, my math whiz BillyGoat is an engineering major and
> still uses his old high school TI 89.
> Teej
> 
> 
> On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 8:21 PM, David Addleton <dfaddleton at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> my kid, against awesome odds, scored big-time this
> semester, and I want to get her a calculator, but I'm
> not certain the best one to get her. She's headed into
> some higher level college calculus and statistics in the
> year ahead; she wants to be an actuary . . . 
> 
> 
> [offering her a week-end hike just won't do it anymore
> . . .] 
> I was thinking along the lines of TI's 89 Titanium? http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/productDetail/us_ti89ti.html