And I don't see much progress then trying my daughter's TI-84.
Don't expect great changes in this area, although the impending death of the Dept. of Education might shake up things. Not for the better, I think.
Given how mediocre and even harmful public education in the US is, especially relative to its (now waning) superpower status, how large the US is, as well as the promotion of weird ideologies by the DoE, I cannot help but welcome its death. In general, I welcome to end of all sorts of vast educational bureaucracies, including those that have occupied private universities and drain them of resources without providing any justifiable benefit.
I think this is where people don't grasp that we didn't always have the kind of overbearing, cabinet-level department of education we have today. This really only goes back to the early 80s. Meaning, opposing the DoE isn't the same as opposing education. The principle of subsidiarity ought to be respected. Decentralization is good. It should be liberating.
So, in practice, I anticipate a greater diversity of curricula. There already exist competing views on pedagogy. This would allow greater flexibility and educational liberty, but also the opportunity to observe how well various pedagogical approaches work. It also introduces a certain accountability, because while you can blame mediocrity on a distant DoE today, the responsibility for education will lie closer to home when there is no DoE to blame.
Incidentally, people like Feynman ostensibly lamented that he expected physics to stagnate given what he saw as the homogenization of education. A similar principle could be said to apply here.
What weird ideologies?
An example: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2023/09/08/c...
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/22/us/reading-teaching-curri...
You dumped a lot of vague buzzwords but you said nothing of substance. You oppose DoE? Why, exactly? It's not clear. If you cannot even express why exactly you oppose the DoE, what does decentralization mean, and why do you believe that to be liberating?
There seems to be a segment of the US population that was heavily indoctrinated into an irrational belief that having any guidance at the federal level is inherently a major problem.
In the meantime, back in reality, the main responsibility of the DoE is to fund scholarships and schools from districts that are unable to self-fund. That's what you get rid of when you argue for getting rid of the DoE. Why is this liberating?
I had been curious how slide rules worked, and had found one after searching high and low for in half a dozen stores before finding probably the last one for sale in Atlanta. The slide rule was in my backpack, so I asked the proctor, could I used the slide rule instead? He chuckled, and said no problem. During the test, one of the proctors tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if he could bring me a bucket of water to cool down my "slip stick". I did pass the test that day, and I used to brag that I got my Extra Class license with a "Slide Rule endorsement".
I'm not sure I really understand your question, TI-84 (and all other TI models) don't use RPN. You can run a program to allow RPN input you want, since most of the higher TIs are programmable. I believe some of HPs current lineup have a limited RPN mode available and SwissMicro makes some new RPN calculators.
>I took an exam today where only TI calculators were available.
That's common as they are the ones used to teach math classes and are vetted to prevent cheating on standardized tests.
>I felt I was caught between some older models where the TI interface was not quite worked out.
I have no idea what this is supposed to mean.
>And I don't see much progress then trying my daughter's TI-84.
Nor this.
https://www.swissmicros.com/products
There is also the HP-15c Collector’s Edition (I have one), which is still in stock: https://www.thecalculatorstore.com/c/hp15c
Two caveats:
1. These RPN calculators are not cheap.
2. Many standardized tests have lists of approved calculators, and it’s possible that the calculators I mentioned might not be on the list. TI has dominated the education market in the United States for the past few decades, and even during the heyday of HP’s RPN calculators, HP largely focused on engineers and other professionals rather than education. Thus, you may need to buy a TI calculator for exam purposes.
I love RPN calculators: I have a HP-48X that I bought used on eBay nearly 20 years ago when I was an undergrad, and my aforementioned HP-15c Collector’s Edition. However, these are collectibles for me; as a computer science professor I’m always in front of a computer, and thus I have access to the Unix dc command whenever I need an RPN calculator, and for more complex computations I have my choice of Excel and various programming languages.
The link below is for a near perfect simulation of the classic HP-15C RPN calculator. Works on both desktop and mobile.
In a former lifetime, I was an engineer. I bought one of these in the early 1980s and used it for almost 40 years before the screen died. Very popular among my colleagues at the time.
https://hpcalcs.com/product/hp-15c-collectors-edition/
I bought one and am happy every time I use it, which is quite often.
I want a calculator that can do all the transforms for me and show the work so I know what I'm doing.
For my day-to-day needs I literally run a TI-89 emulator on my android phone these days. Seems silly.
It’s a really nice tool (although not an RPN calculator). It’s like if Apple designed a calculator… very intuitive.
That said, I wouldn’t call it fully open source. They had some issue because they released an update that locked down their calculators to satisfy school boards (because otherwise students could modify test modes to cheat on tests). The software on GitHub was also out of date, last time I checked.
RPN = reverse Polish notation
"Magazine? Had to look it up."
That's the only place I've ever heard of RPN, which is what nearly all of the winners used, and which we learned to stand a chance.
Business courses frequently use it
What also interest, in early 2000s, Russia made modern remake, with much improved performance and added digital i/o, and compatible with old programs (even emulated some old glitches), so it could really run tons of programs one could find on old books/magazines.
I could not recommend anybody to buy Russian calculators, just want to say, this is very significant niche (RPN), but hugely depend on compatibility (with old software and old books) and on nostalgia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektronika_MK-52
And sorry for Russian language link, for some reason I have not found English.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Электроника_МК-161
https://web.archive.org/web/20140202161045/http://mk.semico....
But if you really want it, and are an Apple user, I have found that the PCalc app[0] has been excellent (I've used it for over 30 years). It works on multiple (Apple) platforms, and has RPN (the real RPN) built in, as a selectable option.
I suspect there's similar apps for Windows, Linux, and Android.
As for RPN, it's one of those things I didn't get until I was in my 30s and started using it. Then used it more. And now I'm at the point where using a "normal" calculator is a frustrating experience. I got very used to the stack and having intermediate results. I find it highly frustrating that the windows calculator still doesn't have it as an option, and that when asked about it the developers seemed confused why anyone would want it.
Free42 has filled the gap though.
As an engineering student in 1987, I bought a HP-28C. I recall it was the first calculator to do symbolic math
Original Price $235 which is close to what I paid. Adjusted for inflation $657
I think it was worth it.
As rightbyte said, RPN is an HP thing, so if you want an RPN calculator, ask for an HP. Most test administrators can help you.
Not anymore, that's why older engineers pay inflated prices for old ones on ebay.
Sadly my HP 48G is dead dead (water damage and corrosion) and they don't have a replacement for that.
I do know that even my TI-85 was programmable. I made a few different functions with it. If you try anything too sophisticated, there really is not sufficient space for it, but it was the first device I ever wrote any kind of program on. I used that through university, but for work I had the HP 12c with reverse Polish notation. Now that was useless. I could never understand why old men preferred that to Excel. Excel is better in every way, and one can write pretty sophisticated functions and simulations in Excel VBA. I spent years doing so.
Overall, I do not see the point in bringing out new calculators. I do think the existing ones should have more RAM and storage with a bit more computational heft, but only 1-3% of owners are ever going to use that, but it will make them so much better.
But if you really wanted to keep using a calculator, you should check out the HP Prime, Casio Prizm, or TI-Nspire series. The HP Prime has RPN, and all of these lines have color touch screens and a bunch of modern features. The TI-84 is not the pinnacle of technology, it is popular only because it is an exam-acceptable and an old standard format that people are used to.
In physics that didn't always apply, but it did often enough that I didn't pull out my calculator until after double checking that I was sure I did all the steps right.
In engineering classes the math was never easy. In the early classes you should still use a basic calculator though as the point is to understand the math behind the problems. In latter classes you can be assumed to understand that and computers to do all that complex math while you focus on the large problem might be good.
OP's question was whether or not there should be replacements for the TI-84, and mentioned that this question arose from an experience taking an exam. Aside from the fact that they may be confused about what RPN is, I suggested that I would consider the use of computers a better focus for exams rather than getting a replacement for the TI-84. And aside from that, there are already replacements in the forms of new calculator product lines.
https://www.promarket.org/2024/04/08/tis-calculator-monopoly...
(Also, TI supports RPN. It also supports PN and infix notation.)
In addition to having several of these, I also use this desktop emulator:
If you want a non-TI calculator that's allowed in the classroom: look at the Casio and Numworks.
I can't ever remember how to use my TI-89 but the numworks is pretty intuitive
There are RPN calculator apps for phones (I like RealCalc on Android).
There are RPN calculator programs for computers (I like Qalculate for GUI, Orpie for a terminal).
There are emulators for the old HP RPN calculators.
Physical calculators are pretty much only useful for situations where internet access isn't allowed, like some exams in school.
And what is this "progress" you speak of? Frankly, I don't know that these calculators should be used in instruction anyway. It smacks of attempts to "modernize education" by throwing computers are it, without justification. Why? Computing devices have their place, but their utility is practical, and their pedagogic value in primary education is limited to specific applications. Using them to teach math seems off. You shouldn't be wasting time on things that have little educational value but that would require a computing device to expedite tedious work.
There are key phrases that a school is scam central. Any time they try to say "X percent of students went off to college" that school is a scam. If they speak of creating "computer literate" or "technology literate" students, the school is a scam.
Check out how easy many of the reading and math tests are, then you will know how horrible it is when schools only have 20-30% of students getting to their grade level. It has been a bizarre transformation where schools went from being oriented around student learning to being oriented around teacher wellness and teacher preferences.
We should be hiring teachers from Singapore and Hong Kong to fix our schools. Instead we hire creepy education consultants that get rich peddling idiocy. It iw a crime against children.