Re: No TI-86. TI-85 or TI-83?
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Re: No TI-86. TI-85 or TI-83?
I cannot begin to say how much I disagree with major portions of this
response, primarily because 99% of the motive behind Jeff's choice has
absolutely nothing to do with the purpose of a calculator.
Resolution: Who cares what the resolution of the screen is? If you are
looking at a graph, it looks nearly identical. Jeff is however correct in
that there are more characters available on a line (16 on an 83, 21 on an
86). So why is resolution so important? Obviously for playing games, not
the real reason for getting a calculator, I suspect.
Features: No question about it. The 85/6 has tons of built-in features
that the 83 does not have. For the most part, my students use two of them.
Root solvers and simultaneous equation solvers. For the rediculously few
quadratics one is asked to solve in school, this is hardly an issue. I
seem to recall seeing yet another in an endless list of TI-82 quad solvers
on this list a couple of days ago. How many simultaneous equations do you
actually solve in your entire High School years, 20, 25?
On the other hand, the 83 gives you a full set of statisical and financial
tools not found on the 85/86. Yes, I know. The 86 has ton's of memory and
you can program them in. I have not download the '86 asm financial
functions that were mentioned in a previous post from King, but I don't
think they are nearly as powerful as the built-in ones on the 83. I may be
wrong on this one.
The real question in selecting a calc is "for what do you need it." If you
are a student who is primarily interested in using the calc for its
intended purposes, specifically your math and science classes, I believe
the the 83 is a much better choice. If, on the other hand, you are
primarily interested in asm programming and games, clearly the 86 is the
better choice.
As a teacher I would be interested in how many of the 85/86 functions you
students actually use in your classes. If you choose to respond, please do
so privately to bdomroy@iepsnet.com. We don't need to clutter up
everyone's e-mails.
At 06:53 AM 8/26/97 UT, you wrote:
>Definitely get the TI-85. Although the TI-83 is newer and has a few features
>the TI-85 doesn't, the TI-85 more than makes up for that with its extra
power.
>It does not have built-in assembly support, but this really isn't necessary
>because assembly shells exist. The higher resolution is just one of the many
>features the 85 has over the 83. For an exact listing of every feature of the
>83 and 85, go to http://www.inlink.com/~dafek/ti-files/columns/calcdesc/ .
For
>further recommendations, go to
>http://www.inlink.com/~dafek/ti-files/columns/compare/calcrecm.htm .
>________________
>
>Jeff Tyrrill
>http://tyrrill-ticalc.home.ml.org/
>http://ti-files.home.ml.org/
>
>
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