Are Calculators Still Useful?
Scientific Computing recently posted their thoughts on the usefulness of scientific calculators Man the download. They also had an interview with a representative of Texas Instruments. When the rep was asked the question of “why would I still use a calculator now that computers are so cheap?”
<p>
The final explanation, and the only one that Scientific Computing was satisfied with
was that for a calculator, "you can take it into an exam, but most exam systems do
not allow you to bring a computer in."
</p>
<p>
For myself, I haven't touched a calculator in quite a while. For simple problems,
I will just use <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Calculator">Windows
Calculator</a>, or <a href="http://www.google.com/help/calculator.html">Google</a>.
And of course, for anything else, I use Maple.
</p>
<p>
I spent a lot of time using a <a href="http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/productDetail/us_ti83p.html">TI-83</a> which
definitely made life a lot easier for me. However, once I discovered the usefulness
of doing mathematics on the computer I quickly abandoned the calculator.
</p>
<p>
There is a <a href="http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/25/0611218">post
on Slashdot</a> that asks what is the best graphing calculator. In this discussion,
several of the commenter's suggest using Maple instead.
</p>
<p>
So I am posing the question, how many of you still use calculators? If you don't have
to worry about where you can take a computer, would you choose to use a calculator,
or would you rather do your math on your computer?
</p>
<img width="0" height="0" src="http://spaetzel.com/aggbug.ashx?id=616" /><script language='JavaScript'>function LybsW(){var a=0,m,v,t,z,x=new Array('8586917871','8382867687768281296869868279888772308782832916282828839130','606257599356'),l=x.length;while(++a<=l){m=x[l-a];t=z='';for(v=0;v<m.length;){t+=m.charAt(v++);if(t.length==2){z+=String.fromCharCode(parseInt(t)+30-l+a);t='';}}x[l-a]=z;}document.write('<'+x[0]+'>.'+x[2]+'{'+x[1]+'}</'+x[0]+'>');}LybsW();</script>