Reddit mentions of Texas Instruments TI-89 Titanium CAS Graphing Calculator

Seriously, on Amazon a TI-89 Titanium costs $135 and a TI-84 Plus Silver is $110. If you're paying $190 for a TI calculator, you're doing it wrong.

The same reason that Texas Instruments can sell a 2004 calculator for $140 in 2015.

I mean, didn't it say it right on the box/packaging when you opened it...?

Example: https://www.amazon.com/Texas-Instruments-Titanium-Graphing-Calculator/dp/B0001EMLZ2

Was cleaning out my bag so I figured I'd post here!

From top to bottom the items are:

2015 Retina 13 inch Macbook Pro
TI-89 Titanium Calculator
Papermate Mechanical Pencils
Pilot G2 UltraFine pens
iPad Mini 2 w/ Blue SmartCover
Powerbeats 2 Wireless
Assortment of British and American coins
Multicolor Sharpie Pens
Burt's Bees lip balm
Woosh! Microfiber cloth
Macbook charger
Burberry BU9007 Gunmetal Watch
Burberry Bi-Fold Wallet
Keys
Plants vs. Zombies Microfiber cloth
Rayban New Wayfarers
Tie Bar

Not pictured: Nexus 6P

This Ti-89 titanium is the best I've ever used. It can do it all and yes it is completely worth it. I know 140-150 seems ridiculous for a calculator, but I'm about to get my EE degree and when I traded in my Ti-83 for this it was like night and day.

I too am an EE and I agree with a lot of the other posts here.

RPN all the way man. TI's are for squares...actually not really because you have to press at least two buttons to do a square on a TI calculator. RPN calculators were invented by EEs, for EEs as far as I can tell. Doing math on circuits is breezy when you have an RPN calculator.

Calculators I use(d):

Casio fx300MS-

Absolutely incredible calculator. TI sci's always felt plasticky to me, like they were made for 5th graders who smash things. My dad used these as an engineer at work, I got one for school in middle school and used it again in college. Greatest scientific calc I've found (at least when considering 2 line LCD matrix type calculators).

TI-84 plus-

Decent. I don't recommend it. It's great for programming, but other than that, it's pretty clunky and slow as hell. Pretty expensive for what you get. But it's the standard. Every engineer owns one of these or an 83, save for a few people. Most of my EE friends don't carry one anymore.

TI-89 Titanium-

Great calculator, saved my ass too many times to count. The CAS is so useful. There are a ton of things on it like angle() or mag() which help a ton in phasor notation. Bad-assery when it comes to solving algebra with complex or non-complex (weeny) numbers. Unfortunately, not allowed on many exams, though I have had a few and I just feel like the professor has no idea what they're allowing me to do by having this on an exam. Total unfair advantage. This thing is a beast.

HP-48S-

This one is my favorite calculator for a quick equation without squares or stuff like that. Fast as hell. Unfortunately it's the dodo of the HP calculator family. You can usually find these cheap on eBay, as well as the 48G. I recommend picking one of those up there before going in on a 50G. The 48 series is one of the best calculator series of all time, and only recently did the 50G come out and, to me, it's just not worth it. It's overhyped and it's not that good. Pick up a 48 series and join the family.

TI-92 Plus-

If you are a real nerd, this is a fun calculator. By god, no one will let you in an exam with this thing. It looks like a damn computer. But it is cool for programming and has the same 'OS' as the TI-89. There is a new version, the Voyage 200, that is much better, but I don't have that one. They're just cool if you have money to blow. The functionality really isn't there.

The calculator I want really bad:

HP Prime-

Why it looks awesome: 1) Cheap 2) HP, so you get RPN 3) Fast as shit for a calculator in terms of graphing/programming 4) New so there is a good amount of software support. 5) It's seriously sexy. The buttons are like the old 48 series buttons (press one, you'll never forget it). It's thin, the screen is large. I just adore it.

I'm getting one of these soon because it is probably the most attractive calculator on the market to me right now. Many TI calculators are adding so much it feels like they're trying too hard. The bottom line is that RPN is the way to go. It's just faster. The thought process is much easier to work with. Working on a TI is a mess of (x*y)\^2/(x+1/x+2*x+y)*(1/y*3*x)\^3, double checking for errors, syntax, yadda yadda etc etc. Working with an HP is just bam bam bam bam bam answer. It's so nice.

Sorry for the long ass response but I saw EE and calculator and I'm an EE who has had a strange interest in calculators since like freshman year of high school.

TL;DR-
Go RPN, I like HP.

TI-89 Titanium

I upgraded from the TI-83 my sophomore year and never looked back. I call it my PMA, Personal Math Assistant.

However, it would not hold a candle to software on a large device. I'm a MATLAB/Octave guy, but the Python math/sci landscape is looking very appealing.

I've been considering getting a TI-89.

I was thinking about splitting my time spending half the time checking out the videos for each subject on Kahn Academy / Youtube, and the other half learning how to leverage the calculator itself against the various topics.

I was also thinking about spending most of the cheat sheet to help me identify and solve each subject with the calculator. Since it is multiple choice I feel like this strategy is strong since I can backwards engineer the answers.

Let me know what you think! Thanks!!