Whats a good graphic calculator these days ?

Thread Starter

DarthVolta

Joined Jan 27, 2015
521
I'm sick of solving LSEqs and working out other trivial stuff, it's about time I get a graphing/sci calc.

What's a good mid-range one for physics and EE ? What sort of price am I looking at?
 

Thread Starter

DarthVolta

Joined Jan 27, 2015
521
Yeah that's true, and my PC doesn't need more wires/batteries. I still want some day tho. Ok just dl'ed maxima, hope it's easy to use.


Jeez I'm fed up with that already, I just want to solve 2 mesh eqn's with complex numbers, with a simple interface. Not spend an hour learning programing. Someday I suppose I will, but not today
 
Last edited:

Ian Rogers

Joined Dec 12, 2012
1,136
Yeah that's true, and my PC doesn't need more wires/batteries. I still want some day tho. Ok just dl'ed maxima, hope it's easy to use.


Jeez I'm fed up with that already, I just want to solve 2 mesh eqn's with complex numbers, with a simple interface. Not spend an hour learning programing. Someday I suppose I will, but not today
I have a Casio CFX9850G very old by today's standards but served me well..The book it came with is 4 times bigger than the calculator, so If you don't like the learning curve just use windows own...
 

SamR

Joined Mar 19, 2019
5,031
In my case, I knew what I wanted to solve and how to state the equations, simultaneous linear equations, rectangular and polar notation calculations, etc. and used it to resolve the equations. I also spent the time to learn to resolve rectangular and polar equations on my TI-83. It being somewhat handier than using the computer. I downloaded Maxima after Mr. Al told me about it but it has quite a learning curve and I haven't taken the time to learn it. It is more like programming than just putting the equation in the correct notation to resolve. I did spend a few hours working with it and reading some tutorials on it. The Wolfram is online and Mathematica resides on my computer as an offline application.
 

SamR

Joined Mar 19, 2019
5,031
I always liked Casios and at one time used HP and reverse polish notation but was given the TI-30 solar and TI-83 after my kids were through using them in HS and college and still use them since they won't die as all my other calculators did. MS does have the MS Mathematics app which is similar to Maxima.
 

MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
Hi,

I had a TI58 for a long time until it finally died on me back in the 1990's. It had a red LED display with 0.2 inch high digits.
I then went to i think it was a TI84 but it was too limited so i got a TI85.
Some years later that died too, so i went to a TI89. I like the TI89 power but it only does lower case variables which is totally ridiculous.
Then maybe a year ago i picked up a used TI85 which was cool because i had one in the past and i had software i wrote for it including a circuit analysis program. I hardly use it but back in the 90's i used it every day for hours on end. I discovered many things with that calculator including how to reduce the number of constants for encoding/decoding a JPG image which depended on a lot of matrix operations. The drawback to that one is it does not do any symbolic calculations at all while the TI89 does.

However, some years later i downloaded a PC version of the TI89 which gives you a TI89 right on your PC screen complete with skin and all. You have to own a TI89 though to be able to download the TI89 op sys image file. But i also downloaded an advanced HP calculator complete with op sys image.

I also wrote software for a number of different calculators including symbolic calculators that solve differential equations. Most of that took a back seat though when i downloaded my first copy of Maxima. Now i use Maxima with some helper programs i wrote to do different things, as well as programs to calculate things that are hard to get to work on Maxima or other types of software. These programs are often dedicated to one specific task but some can do different things in a more general way. I also wrote a huge math library which i use with my programs to handle complex numbers and various other types of the usual calculations.
 

Mark Hughes

Joined Jun 14, 2016
409
Back in college, I got an HP48G because I liked the RPN -- loved it then, love it now. Although a few years ago I thought I'd treat myself and get the latest, greatest upgrade in that product line. I still reach for my HP48G instead of that one.

But, I reach for WolframAlpha and Mathematica before I reach for the calculator.
 

MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
Back in college, I got an HP48G because I liked the RPN -- loved it then, love it now. Although a few years ago I thought I'd treat myself and get the latest, greatest upgrade in that product line. I still reach for my HP48G instead of that one.

But, I reach for WolframAlpha and Mathematica before I reach for the calculator.
Hi,

Yeah things have changed a lot since the days of the TI58.
https://www.ebay.com/i/113914169841...MIxZzM74uj5QIVD2yGCh0XSwWdEAQYASABEgJh2fD_BwE

I would not buy one today no way, but back in the day that was my goto calculation means.
 

Ya’akov

Joined Jan 27, 2019
9,069
While TI owns the academic market, I am still an HP fan. I have several, including a 48G and a 48. The G sits on my desk because the 48 uses N cells and they aren't common. I also have an IR printer which I rarely use but it's so cool it sits out anyway.

My first HP was a 25, not even the C model. 49 steps of programming, no persistent memory.
 

MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
While TI owns the academic market, I am still an HP fan. I have several, including a 48G and a 48. The G sits on my desk because the 48 uses N cells and they aren't common. I also have an IR printer which I rarely use but it's so cool it sits out anyway.

My first HP was a 25, not even the C model. 49 steps of programming, no persistent memory.
Hi,

Oh yeah you reminded me of my first programmable calculator too, it was a Radio Shack and i think it had 50 steps of programming memory (har har). I loved it though and had a blast with it. Cant remember the year now, maybe mid 1970's or early 1970's.
RS was really thriving back then.
 

Ya’akov

Joined Jan 27, 2019
9,069
My first calculator was a TI 30, in 1976. In 1973, my father had a "miniature" four-banger that was about the size of two stacked packs of cigarettes and used a NiCd battery, very advanced. On top it had three pushbuttons for advanced functions: square root, square, and reciprocal.

Before that, it was slide rules. I had one, but I was a teenager and only used it lightly.
 

Wolframore

Joined Jan 21, 2019
2,609
My favorite calculator these days is my iPad.
here’s a graphing one. My go to is the large one with most of the functions I need.

BF6B656F-530B-4D68-AAA0-AC0D3317CFB4.png
 
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