Much more than just a Calculator!

For all of you out there that have to have the best of everything, this is your calculator. Besides the TI-92, this is the best calculator Texas Instruments has to offer. I am going into my senior year as an Electrical Engineering Major and I wouldn't have made it this far without this calculator. It is a necessity for any math or engineering major.


There are tons of features on this calculator, most of which you will probably never use, but they're there. I would like to talk about some of the more useful features of this calculator at this time.

Graphing

The TI-89 does several types of graphs. You can do sequence, polar, 2-D, split screen, and even 3-D graphing. The split screen feature is nice because you can have more than one graph on the screen at once. This is a lot better than having to exit out and re-enter the graphing screen every time you want to look at a new graph. While in 3-D mode you can have the graph constantly rotate if you hold down one of the four directional arrow keys for a second or two. This allows you to look at the graph form all angles without having to keep pressing buttons. You can also hit the X, Y, or Z keys to look at the graph along any of the three axes.

Some of the other things you can do while in graphing mode are zoom in or out. This is nice if you want to look closer at a specific part of a graph, or get a bigger picture. You can find the relative min and max of a graph. You can automatically do integrals on parts of the graph to find the area under the curve. Basically, if there is something you want done as far as graphing goes, this calculator does it. The hardest part is figuring out how to do it. And even that isn't too hard because of the nice detailed instruction book that comes with it.

Matrices

Say you are trying to solve a bunch of equations at once. There are four equations and four unknowns (you need to have at least the number of equations to match the number of unknowns to be able to solve the system of equations). It would take a while to solve this by hand. Well this calculator has a few ways to automatically solve for all the unknowns with a few pushes of a few buttons.

If you are thinking about going into EE, you must have a calculator that does this. Circuits is a class that you will not pass unless you have a calculator that does simultaneous equation solving.


Power Source

The TI-89 uses four AAA batteries. It should come with the four batteries included. I have had my calculator for about 8 months now and only had to change the batteries once. The TI-89 has a power save feature where it will automatically shut off after two minutes of no buttons being pushed. This really saves your batteries, especially if you fall asleep a lot while studying. = )

Other Stuff

The TI-89 has it all. It has a Data/Matrix editor which does many things as far as matrices go, and also serves for a second rate version of Excel. It has almost any symbol you would need if you like to store equations in your calculator. No more trying to remember what Greek letter matches the letter that you put in your calculator, this one has all the Greek letters as well as many other mathematical symbols.

There are tons of games you can get from other kids at your school. I never went through the trouble of getting any because I have a Palm Pilot and I keep all my games on there, but I just thought I'd let you know there are games.

A great feature of this calculator is the Flash Memory feature. This will enable the TI-89 to be upgraded, so it will not be outdated anytime soon.

There are also many extra software packages you can purchase from the Texas Instruments web site. I have talked to a few kids that bought the EE package and they say it is pretty nice. They usually run about 40-50 bucks each.

Derivatives, integrals, linear equations, fractions, differential equations, and simple polynomials are some of the things this calculator can solve on its own for you. All of the answers are given to you in a form that you would write on your paper if you would solve it yourself. This is a new feature called Pretty Print. It is really nice and makes reading the answers the calculator gives you a lot easier. This feature can be turned on or off.


Overall

I could go on and on for a few pages about this calculator. It has so many features you will never use them all, but its nice to know they are there. It is rather expensive for the calculator category, but I wouldn't call it a calculator because it is a lot more than that. Texas Instruments did a great job with the TI-89, so I will have to give it a perfect 10 out of 10.

Thanks for reading! = )