Graphing Calculators | TheaterFire

Had to buy my daughter a graphing calculator last year. Why are these required? Isn't there a market for a phone app that can do the same thing when every kid already has a phone?

Serious question. My dumbass never got to a class where these were used, so I never had one.

[-]

One_Hour_Poop@reddit

I took a community college class a few years ago and we had to use calculators, because using a phone would make it too easy to just ask Google for the answers. Calculators can only calculate.

[-]

A few years back i decided to take some classes at a community college and the math class required us to buy one of those fancy expensive calculators. My immediate thought was FUCK! Then I got to Walmart and they were like $10.

I don't know if technology advanced to make them cheap or if it was just a skewed sense of money as a kid vs being an adult.

[-]

woodworkingguy1@reddit (OP)

Little of both, in highschool, Class of 93 here, they were about $150. Luckily my school had then we would use them in trig and geometery class but returned at the end of class.

[-]

Legitimate-Annual-90@reddit

I actually bought a used one off a mom for my son about 7 years ago. It was 100$ retail, and I got it for 20$

[-]

Starla22475@reddit

I have a pink one. Used daily.

[-]

crackersncheeseman@reddit

Yeah only the rich sophisticated kids had them.

[-]

Man-e-questions@reddit

I couldn’t afford one and had to check one out from three library to do homework

[-]

ShepardsPrayer@reddit

Daily driver since 1991

[-]

81Ranger@reddit

Mine died about 8 years ago. Sigh.

[-]

DeeDleAnnRazor@reddit

If you find one in good clean condition they still bring good money on eBay! We sell them frequently! People still love them!

[-]

Zh25_5680@reddit

HP 48SX

$359

Lived in that thing for years

[-]

quasifun@reddit

I had it for most of my 4 years of engineering.

Let me tell you, there was one thing that made it the bomb. Some of my classes had a lot of calculations with imaginary numbers. We were taught how to do these by hand. But the 48 could do it natively. So it made doing these really fast. I know this is trivial for anybody with a phone or laptop now, but in the 80s, that was amazing.

The RPN had a learning curve, but once you got used to it, you could be really productive on it.

[-]

Uranus_Hz@reddit

Yup. Still have mine 30 years later.

[-]

81FXB@reddit

I still have mine

[-]

stupidwhiteman42@reddit

I preferred the HP because of the Reverse Polish Notation.

[-]

Majik_Sheff@reddit

RPN for life.

I use RealCalc on my phone because it has RPN and a lot of the engineering and base conversion functions I loved on my HP32.

[-]

Zh25_5680@reddit

Yup. It’s awesome

[-]

ShaperLord777@reddit

Never once in my adult life have I had to calculate the cosign of anything.

[-]

mtempissmith@reddit

I think they were like $119 when I was in college struggling through Algebra for the 3rd time...

[-]

DarthGuber@reddit

I've seen them anywhere from $25 to $50 at pawn shops. It's a great device once you get the hang of it.

[-]

originalmosh@reddit

$20.73 at THE Walmart.

[-]

DarthGuber@reddit

That's not the same. Your link is for the TI-36x.

[-]

anotherbigdude@reddit

I have snake on my TI-83.

I still use my TI-89 at work today, almost twenty years after buying it!

[-]

DarthGuber@reddit

I have a port of Doom on my 84, but no idea where I put the calculator.

[-]

mellyjo77@reddit

I still have my TI-84 graphing calculator from 1993 and it still works!

[-]

TheTEA_is_hot@reddit

The first one I bought was TI-86. Too expensive!
I lived with that thing for several years. I don't have it anymore. It stopped working.

[-]

YoMomma-IsNice@reddit

I had a TI-85 back in the day for my physics/engineering classes in college. I think it cost me around $125? That was a lot of money back then.

[-]

quentinislive@reddit

‘You can use your sister’s!’ Literally, all 5 of us used it.

[-]

Aggressive-Pilot6781@reddit

I used your sister’s, too

[-]

apc961@reddit

Borat has entered the chat

[-]

fraurodin@reddit

I think mine was like $79 and I felt so guilty that my parents had to buy that for me, luckily my mom started using it for her job so I didn't feel as bad.

[-]

storm_the_castle@reddit

HP 48GX was the GOAT

[-]

Majik_Sheff@reddit

Still have mine. It's still awesome. Unfortunately I rarely have occasion to use it.

[-]

soopirV@reddit

I went with a three-color Casio and was mocked mercilessly by my high school precalc teacher; figured out pretty quickly it’s because he didn’t actually understand what he was teaching and was afraid his “push this then that” wouldn’t work on something different.

It didn’t, but I actually learned how to do it, so thanks anyway!

[-]

InterviewMean7435@reddit

And my idiot daughter lost several of them.

[-]

PoisonMind@reddit

My parents were cheap and I ended up with a Casio fx-7700. I had to translate programming languages. Ugh.

[-]

PacRat48@reddit

Followed along during the demonstration in algebra 2 I believe. Just the one day.

Haven’t used it since

[-]

Bitter-Ad-6709@reddit

Texas Instruments? Lol

We HAD to get an HP brand with the foldable cover that snapped shut over the calculator. A hard case. It was close to $200 back in the early 90s when I was in college. We had to get one for higher up math classes. And possibly engineering. I don't remember exactly (damnit).

[-]

MarkItZeroDonnie@reddit

Cheat sheet machine

[-]

Slater_8868@reddit

Our teacher made us remove the back cover and batteries and reset it before every test :(

[-]

VodkaToasted@reddit

Right, aside from regular calculator use that was really it's only function. I literally got a bachelors in math and I never once graphed anything on my graphing calculator.

[-]

doa70@reddit

I bought my Casio fx9000g for college and paid a pretty penny. Still less than a non-graphing HP at the time though. I still have the 9000, and it still works, although it eats batteries.

[-]