|
Overkill. They don't allow graphing calculators at the Naval Nuclear Power School for security reasons. Thus, most of us had a TI-36X or a TI-30ii. The 36X had a better function set, but the 30ii had a 2-line display. Either one was more than adequate for the math we had to do (just nuclear physics and thermodynamics... nothing fancy).
I'd recommend getting a 2-line display, scientific calculator. I personally use a Casio fx-115MS+. It costs $15. The only thing I find it lacks are build in imperial/metric conversions. If the TI-36X is ever released with a 2-Line display, I'd recommen it as well.
I have a TI-92 and 86 from college and highschool. I never could convince myself that it was faster to try to get the calculator to solve the problem in one go (With several rounds of "track down the data entry error") rather than solving it myself and just using the calculator for doing some of the hairier computational steps. So I basically had a $100 8-function calculator. I did like the ability to save intermediate calculations and see the previous steps I had done, though. If you're spending 5 minutes trying to type in the problem so the calculator will solve it in one go, though, realize you're spending more time doing your homework that way than if you just learned the subject.
The 3D graphing is really fun to play with, though.
__________________
Simple Machines in Higher Dimensions
|