The future of handheld scientific and graphing calculators (or pen + paper, for that matter) 7

[SNORGY]

I had a few days off over the holidays, so passing the time in front of NFL football and World Junior hockey on TV (-25 C outside...), I started transferring iPad apps onto my new iPad Air. While doing this, I decided to search for new apps that emulate graphing calculators. I now have four such on both iPads: RCL-59 (TI-59), i41CX+ (HP-41CX), i48 (HP-48GX) and HP50G (HP-50g).

I went through university using a TI-59, and I have never been converted to the RPN cult, which gave rise to the purchase of my post-university calculators, both TI: a TI-81 and the one I use now, a TI-89 Titanium. In light of that, and perhaps because I am now in a physical and cerebral midlife crisis, I rationalized that having the three HP emulators wouldn't do me much good without having the original calculator manuals, so I found and downloaded all of them in PDF format - in aggregate, thousands of pages of documentation. Feeling nostalgic, I decided to pick up my TI-89-T and teach myself how to program it, which is something I always wanted to do but never took the time. I hooked it up to the PC and refreshed myself with the associated TI Connect software and various user documentation. After an evening spent between that and doing some on-line web searching related to a gamut of pseudo-related topics, I came across some articles and points of view that were thought-provoking and somewhat disturbing.

There is a rapidly growing camp that shares the opinion that handheld calculators of any kind are already obsolete, and have been for about a decade. But for the fact that educators mandate their use (by association, forbid the use of iPads, iPhones, PDA devices and certain models of scientific / graphing handhelds) on examinations, there would no longer be a market for them. More disturbing was the suggestion that Texas Instruments has been able to gain and maintain the vast majority of the market share by working collaboratively with educators and textbook authors to implement an educational system in which the course material in math and science curriculae is integrated with their technology, indeed to the point where you need one in order to succeed in the other. It is further suggested that this alone will perpetuate the necessity and, therefore, existence of calculators (particularly TI calculators) long beyond what would otherwise spell their demise. This might explain why you don't find a lot of TI calculator apps for the iPad or iPhone, since it wouldn't make a lot of sense to spend several hundreds of dollars on a device when an equivalent app could be purchased for 5% of the cost.

I personally like calculators. I like the look and feel of them, and I like the fact that they do exactly what they are designed to do (for the most part - bugs aside). I like picking up a pencil, ruler, eraser and calculation paper pad and solving a problem, using a calculator to the extent required in support of this endeavour. However, I have an iPad at work with numerous good apps installed - Math Studio for example - that replaces a lot of the functionality that my calculator used to have. I also have a PC workstation with two big screens and MS Office. I am now in a mode at work where most of the time I spend pushing buttons on my TI-89-T is in a conference room in design review meetings; even then, I often pull out my iPhone for unit conversions because using the app is faster than pushing the buttons on the calculator.

My question is twofold (threefold maybe):

After graduating from school, are handheld calculators worthless due to their apparent obsolescence relative to emerging technologies?

For that matter, is the combination of "calculation paper + pencil + eraser + ruler + calculator" obsolete and worthless?

With the increased use of and dependence on current and emerging technologies, are we still nevertheless educating students and producing practitioners that "can do the math" rather than simply "correctly enter the data" and, if indeed we are, then are folks like me who still "go retro" and "do things Old School" becoming more worthless and obsolete?

 

[hokie66]

If "calculation paper + pencil + eraser + ruler + calculator" makes one obsolete and worthless, then that makes at least two of us. There are lots of tools available today, but I don't see that any of them have made common sense and engineering judgement less valuable.

 

[fegenbush]

Your post brings up many issues I have with the current state of calculators, education, and mathematics. I will be hard to not be long-winded on a topic about which I care greatly, but I will try to be concise.

TI has long been marketing directly to educators as a marketing strategy. It has worked so well that all other manufacturers struggle to maintain ANY market share. The downside to such a strategy is that, I believe, it takes away understanding of why the math works the way it does. It has caused the math education of young people to move forward at a blistering pace to the point that children are learning algebra at younger and younger ages. However, I do not believe that breadth of mathematical knowledge is beneficial to the average adult. More benefit could be achieved by practical mathematics and financial management instruction than by learning how to play Tetris on their calculator.

The reason that calculators are still used at all is the same reason that people still wear wristwatches. It is often valuable to have a tool that does one job and does it well. Students who learned calculation in school who go on to be engineers or scientists will still want to have the tool they know and trust as their go-to device. I have personally bought up used calculators of my preferred model as back-ups in case my primary one dies, since it is no longer in production (and hasn't been for 25 years).

I had an instructor ask "what is the language of engineering?" I thought that was an interesting question, and I didn't really know the answer. He said the language of engineering is the sketch. I have taken that to heart, as more and more I have found that to be true. For this reason, I don't see pencils going away any time soon. That doesn't mean that most people's handwriting isn't atrocious. Let's face it, most people don't put good handwriting high on their priorities, but they should.

 

[SAITAETGrad]

After leaving school, it was hard to sever the tie with the calculator. Then I got fustrated with making corrections that required recalculation.

Spreadsheets are a better tool when you are at your desk. Your phone will be with you when you are not. i do keep a handheld calculator on my desk for quick calcs often in design meetings - a $10 Casio fx-115ES non-graphic, non-programmable...which is a very capable machine that I bought for professional examinations. Back in school, I was a devotee of the HP-48gx. That calculator died riding around in my motorcycle backpack...so I replaced it with an HP-50g...never really used it.

I could see using a machine like the HP50g but only if one was involved with making routinue programmed calculations in the field. But, you have to think you'll need to maybe print or put that information into a report...so why not use a laptop?

The calculator companies have really never had the vision to move the device beyond how they were used back in the early 1990s. They seem to be fine with the devices being limited to education- and why not...still sell a lot and people can hang onto these things for decades.

If one was to reboot the design, you would want to salvage to the good...the dedicated keyboard and display and make it easier to work with other devices. With all the different sorts of specialized cellphones and tablets, why isn't there a scientific calculator specialized version? Probably because students couldn't use it exclusively- that's why!

As for drawing tools and just the pen/paper notepad, these should always have a place. Drawing is a fundamental design skill everyone needs. I have a Samsung Note 10.1 tablet which has a Waacom pressure sensitive display and stylus for drawing. Great tool that does partially fill this space. Paper and pen are just a little more straightforward...

 

[msquared48]

I like to keep my options open.

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)

 

[berkshire]

I guess a lot of this conversation depends on your age. I am now 72, in my 20's the conversation was "Will the digital calculator ever replace the slide rule?" We now know how that turned out, you have to go to an antique store to buy a slide rule now. As a dinosaur I still use a Casio programmable FX 9750G Plus that I can write my own programs for. Oh and I still have a slide rule. I guess sooner or later I will get dragged kicking and screaming onto a tablet.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[SomptingGuy]

I spent a week away in another office recently. Didn't take my calculator with me. That's a first in 25 years! Didn't take phone either, but did take watch. And pen & pad.

- Steve

 

[RobertHale]

When I graduated I used my TI-89. I forced myself off the 89 when I was studying to take the SE and I never turned back. Now my 89 is gathering dust and my tried and true TI 36 is what I reach for first. I do rely on spreadsheets to do annoyingly repetitive math (i.e. manipulate areas and wind pressures to get actual wind forces) but nothing can take the place of the handheld calculator to check to make sure deflections make sense or quick reinforcing areas. If I tasked with the design of wood building I will do all the calculations of the roof/floor systems using a calculator and pencil with the calcs on a plan sheet, and I would venture to wager I would be as quick as someone flushing it through RISA or Woodworks.

 

[JohnRBaker]

I'm in the same camp as berkshire only a few years younger (I'll turn 68 later this year). When I was in engineering school back in the late 60's all we had were slide rules and about 10 year after graduation we were having this same conversation, as berkshire alluded to only the topic was the obsolescence of the slide rule by handheld calculators, of course this was before PC's and spreadsheets.

But getting back to something SNORGY said in his original post; I to decided to install an app on my iPhone that gave me access to the 'calculator' that I was most familiar with from my past, only this one is called 'SlipStick' (it includes a full 'multimedia' tutorial on how to use all the features of your 'Virtual Slide Rule'), and it emulates my old Pickett N-500-ES to a 'T', which I still keep in the bottom drawer of my desk in case of a power failure ;-)

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[Longinthetooth]

SaitaetGrad-

I still use an HP 48-GX. It belonged to my son when he was in high scool (20 years ago now). I took it over, almost by accident, and it has served me well ever since. When you are at the very front end of a project and you are searching for viable options and generaly musing, you cant beat a piece of paper, a pencil, and a calculator.

 

[IRstuff]

In the office, only for quick, simple, calculations do I use a calculator, and it's often the one that's installed on my phone, because carrying a real calculation is just inconvenient. Otherwise, I use Mathcad or Excel or Matlab, depending on the application. At some point in time, I'll hopefully be a able to install something equivalent on the phone or phablet, and until then, it'll be unclear whether the calculator will survive.

TTFN
faq731-376

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Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

 

[cranky108]

A spread sheet works well, but because most computers are slow about starting up applications, they aren't always convient. A calculator is quick and works with degrees, where excel only works in radians (not the way I think).

I go back to what happens when your all in one device dies? Are you left with nothing?

Most computers, calculators, watches, etc. just don't feel right up next to my ear, because they were not made for that (my phone dosen't either, but that a different story). Each device should be designed for it's primary purpose, but a multi-function device is designed sort of as a best fits in your hand.

If you can't hold your phone between your face and your shoulder and talk while trying to pull your computer out, then the phone is the wrong shape/size.

 

[drawoh]

I have a Casio fx-991MS I use frequently. I still miss my fx-4000 which got stolen many years ago. I still have a slide rule. I am 60. Internet capable devices should be banned from exam rooms.

If a calculation is important, I use a spreadsheet, or Octave, both of which allow me to punch in alternate numbers. The strong point about Excel is that it runs on everybody's computer. I can name the cells.

--
JHG

 

[JohnRBaker]

With all these comments about the old TI calculators, I thought you all would get a kick out of this bit of trivia:

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[IRstuff]

Doesn't take much horsepower to blow away the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC). Even my Z-80A from 1982 was slightly faster than the AGC, and with a full 64 kB DRAM memory.

TTFN
faq731-376

Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529

Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

 

[Maui]

drawoh, I have used an fx-4000P calculator since I was a sophomore in college. love this calculator. When it finally gave up the ghost about 6 years ago I purchased another one on Ebay. You can occasionally find them there for $50 or less. But beware - these Ebay offerings often have issues. It's difficult to find one that is in good working order, so ask a LOT of questions before buying.

Maui

 

[JohnRBaker]

Actually I think that trivia item was referring to the guidance computer on the LEM, which controlled the Moon landing itself.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[cranky108]

And to think the Apollo and all it's parts were built by the low bidder. Maybe TI should have given a lower bid.

Have you put the moon lander program in your TI yet?

 

[GregLocock]

The second thing I did with a programmable calculator was write an autopilot for the moon landing program, which was the first thing I ever did with it. That was a Commodore PR100, which got me through uni

http://www.rskey.org/CMS/index.php/exhibit-hall/7?manufacturer=Commodore&model=PR-100

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

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[MikeHalloran]

My first calculator was a TI-55 programmable. I liked it until I discovered that some of the built in functions used the user registers. That was documented somewhere, but I only found the documentation after getting strange program results. After that, I was wary of computing machines.

For a few years I used a company owned Tek-31 desktop calculator, also programmable but hardly portable. My then employer used Tek-21 calculators to drive instruments, over a GPIB precursor interface bus on a fat cable. I hacked one of our plotter interfaces to drive an analog plotter with 4 decimal digits of resolution vs. the original 3 digits, because I got tired of plots with jaggies. Later I programmed an 80/24 SBC to accept digital plotter commands over parallel or serial interfaces and drive a plotter through that same interface.

After I got hold of a CP/M computer and discovered spreadsheets with T/Maker, I never bought another discrete calculator for myself.




Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA