🚀 go-pugleaf

Brion G. Patterson (bpatters@PEN.K12.VA.US) wrote:
: Are people using graphing calculators in introductory physics
: classes?  My students now all have them, I haven't used the
: capabilities of them, and I'm not sure if I want to.  It seems
: that basically with the graphing calculators you start with the
: equations as given, instead of deriving them ( or maybe it
: doesn't have to be "instead" but that seems sort of the gist of
: it).
: So what are folks doing?
: -Brion

I see a few with $250 HP48GX's, a bunch with TI81 through TI85, and 
the majority with much cheaper calcs. At Drexel, we get them to 
try Maple V and Excel for calculations and graphing. 

Generally, these calculators seem like toys with frills. None of my students
has really used the stuff.

However, one thing is really useful, and that's the multi-line display.
All calculators should have these things, but I don't think that
freshmen need to spend more than $100 for it...


Chuck
(Grad Student and Physics TA, whose wife wouldn't let him buy a HP48GX...)