lovdbyGod7's Full Review: Texas Instruments TI-86 Graphic Calculator
Texas Instruments, abbreviated “TI” and maker of a number of computer and calculator products (including the first microchip), is widely renowned for their great products. The TI-86 doesn’t break this tradition of excellence—in fact, it goes a long way to further it.
I was looking at my dear friend tag_1234’s review of the “86” and was somewhat disappointed at his assessment of said product, but was most impressed, as always, by his great writing. So impressed that, for a moment, I was unsure of myself (as I always am when reading great reviews of products I intend to write on) and didn’t know where or how to start. As a result, I decided to start at the beginning in my “let’s-try-to-make-it-a-long-story-before-we-get-to-the-point” style so well-known by those who are so kind as to follow my writing. And so, a narrative, from “lbg7.” (Yo Jeremy, don’t forget the $5 you owe me for dedicating most of a paragraph to you -- just kidding.)
The Looong Story…
One time, as a wee child, I embarked upon a challenging academic course…
…Made Short…
TI-86 Rocks! It rules! Everyone ought to buy it! You stink if you don’t agree with me! This thing is awesome! Wow!
…Or…
Perhaps I should just start talking and worry about length later…
Texas A&M University Honors Colloquium
In the year 2000 National Merit Competition I was selected as a “high-scorer” (the prelude to National Merit Semifinalist, Finalist, and finally, National Merit Scholar—which I was honored eventually to achieve). As a result, Texas A&M (because of the prestige of having National Merit Finalists attend their university) was so kind as to invite me and a number of other “high-scorers” (this was before the high-scorers were cut between “commended” and “semi-finalist”) to their honors shin-dig. I went. It was fun.
At the time my proposed major was Comp Sci (Computer Science), and during part of the program we visited our respective departments. Evidently I was consigned to the College of Engineering (this was two years ago, my memory isn’t as clear as it could be otherwise). They had three contests—an egg drop, a rubber-band car building and racing contest, and a contest to build a bridge from toothpicks that could support the most weight. We were sorted into “teams,” and mine was selected to do both the egg-drop and the car thingy.
For the egg-drop, we were given six full sheets of newspaper and six rubber bands and told to make something that could be dropped from two stories high without harming the egg. After many proposed designs failed, I said “What the heck” and just balled all the paper around the egg and rubber banded it together in layers—one rubber band surrounding and holding in place each piece of newspaper we balled up around the egg. We went to the second story and I dropped it. I wasn’t expecting much, but to my surprise, the egg survived intact.
The “finalists” in this contest, those whose eggs didn’t break, were told to drop their contraptions from the third story balcony, aiming at an X on the large tarpaulin beneath. If more than one team’s egg survived, the closest to the X would win. Ours, miraculously, did survive, and, by a freak of nature, I happened to get it reasonably close to the X. As a prize each person on my team won a TI-86, worth about $120 or so at the time.
So hey, what better price is there than free?
Enough Stories
You want to hear about the product, though, not my life story. Right? Well, that’s okay, since my life isn’t really all that exciting anyway. Here goes, then:
Use
Unlike the 82 and 83, the TI-86 is a sort of menu-driven calculator. Not a GUI (Graphical User Interface) like Windows, PDAs, etc., but in a more basic way. At the top of the calculator, right under the screen, are five keys, labeled F1 through F5. Whenever you hit a button such as “graph,” five options will appear on the bottom of the screen right above the “F” keys. This is your “menu.” Choose one of the options and the calculator will either perform the action or open another menu of options (if that was your choice). In some cases one key holds more than five options (for instance, the graph key) in which case you can press the “more” button to view the next five options.
With a little bit of playing around and experimenting you shouldn’t have any difficulty using the calculator. I, unlike tag_1234, have a very hard time understanding and using the TI-89. It’s menu-driven, too, but I certainly can’t understand the menus nor can I figure out how to operate it. No doubt it is more powerful, but if you can’t figure it out, what is the use? In college we were required to buy an HP-49G which is far, far more confusing than the 86, but also far more powerful for engineering classes. I’ve nearly decided now not to be an engineer after all, and so will be able to use my 86 for everything I need. In fact, I can’t even get my HP back to the home screen! It’s hopeless to try to use.
From time to time I played games on my 86 (Tetris, Frogger, Pong, etc.), every now and then during class last year (not much, Mom, don’t worry—and never this year. Seriously.) I can’t figure out how to write programs (it uses a modified Basic, different than the one I learned on my computer), but evidently somebody can because there are some really great games, solvers, etc. available for this calculator.
I’ve used it all the way through calculus and it by far exceeded my needs. With the ability to do trig, to graph, to program, to take definite integrals, to find derivatives at a point, to find the value of a function at a point, to do matrices, etc. I’ve never had to seriously think about using my HP or any other calculator. This, IMHO, is as good as it gets.
Brief Review
TI-82—I don’t recommend this calculator. With little memory and few features, it’s really just a scientific calculator with graphing capability.
TI-83—A little better, and looks much nicer, but I wouldn’t want to try to use it in a Calc class. No significant improvement.
TI-85—All the features of an 86 with slightly less memory and less aesthetically appealing.
TI-86—All you need in a calculator for math classes up through Calc II. Easy to use and powerful.
TI-89—Quite a bit more powerful than the 86, nonetheless I never had any use for it (i.e. everything I’ve ever needed to do was done by my TI-86). Difficult to use and more expensive than the 86 (but prettier), I wouldn’t buy it unless you are working with advance applications, in which case it’s surely better than the HP-49G.
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