Posts: 2,448
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Joined: Jul 2005
BUT you will spend an inordinate amount of time just trying to learn how to use all those ALG48 and Erable features, instead of putting your time into concentrating on actually learning calculus!
Avoid the trap of believeing you NEED the calculator to do well in maths. Calculators are good for computation and arithemtic (and programming--that is fun) but math is not computer programming, nor is it arithmetic. Mathematics is most definitely NOT arithmetic---it is really logic and philosophy----physics is arithmetic (well, heavy duty arithmentic)!
While these "CAS" (Computer Algebra Systems) are very intereting and also powerful, unless you have already learned them along the way, they are too complicated to apply suddenly to your college learning needs--when you are not accustomed to them.
Having taken calculus the old fashioned way in the 80's I cannot speak for the current curriculum, but I bet you don't HAVE to have a calculator?? Perhaps ask the professor---"what's with this calculator thing all about?" (Am I just way out of touch here?).
Regards,
Bill
Posts: 3
Threads: 1
Joined: Sep 2011
Roger,
I am a structural engineer who took calculus in the early-mid 90's. I am an HP user and I swear by them for everything BUT calculus (though the HP48 did better at plotting slope fields than any calculator I had at the time). If you are taking calculus, I recommend the Texas Instruments (sorry HP) TI-89, which is a far far superior calculator for calculus. Most importantly, consult the math department at your school and find out what they recommend. And yes, they will most likely require a graphing calculator, though times have changed in the last 10 years with regard to teaching methodologies in calculus classes. When I took it, graphing calculators were fairly new and my school jumped on the TI wagon, and I agree with those who caution about "needing" a calculator. They can (like computers in engineering analysis) become quite the crutch...follow your school’s recommendations as the courses can be taught around the calculator, and you can be quickly left in the dust if the instructor is guiding the class through a calculator exercise and you have a different calculator than her/him.