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Re: Does anybody actually use graphing calculators to do something useful?
Posted:
May 24, 2009 11:54 AM
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In article
<708a6d26-cfde-4cbf-a719-a43151a8c880@x3g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>,
michalchik <michalchik@aol.com> wrote:
. . .
> Recently, I have again become a fan of Casio Calculators. No graphing
> but good editing and replay capabilities as well as symbolic
> processing (very useful). It is very nice to enter problems in, in
> terms of fractions, radicals, pi, e, etc.. and see the answers come
> out in the same terms. I particularly like this in teaching where it
> helps students visualize the structure of fractions and ratios, see
> cancellations, and maintains the relationship of constants instead of
> crunching everything down to intuitively barren decimal
> approximations. Without, the overhead of graphing these calculators
> can put more useful things in easy to access places and squeeze in
> things like definite integrals. Finally, non-graphing calculators are
> a hell of a lot cheaper. My Casio fx-155 es cost me about 20 dollars
> while my TI-84 plus, silver edition cost me about 100. I use the Casio
> all the time and use the TI only when i have misplaced the Casio or
> want to play a game. I am recommending the Casio to all my students.
>
. . .
The calculator sitting next to my keyboard is a Casio fx-7400G PLUs
POWER GRAPHIC. Yes, Casio makes graphing calculators--at least they
used to. A quick Google search shows they still do, several models,
including mine. The list price for today's version of mine (the picture
looks slightly different) is $39.99, and I'm pretty sure I could find if
for substantially less.
But I have to agree with the OP about one thing: I was thrilled with
the prospect of getting a graphing calculator, but I don't use that
capability very much. Not very much doesn't mean never, however. It is
sometimes very handy to see a plot of data points, and in some cases
functions. What I use it more for (other than simply as a calculator)
is to run a few SIMPLE programs.
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