advice on buying a calculator

need to upgrade my trusty old calculator i used back in high school to a more up to date more powerful model that i'll be able to use for surveying/ engineering.

anybody got any ideas on where to buy? what brand? would like to specifically hear from people who actually do use calculators in the field. pros? cons?

thanks in advance.

I don't know exactly what you'd need to be able to do, but I'd recommend what ever the newest Texas Instraments graphing calc is.

I've always been a fan of the Abacus


you never have to worry about batteries or light if it's solar powered

haha! nice one devil6 but i already got one of those.

Im not sure if this is what your looking for....http://www.calculated.com/cat4/Construction+Calculators.html



http://www.engineersupply.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=ES19

ive always used casios... um u want a graphing calc or a normal calc if a normal id go wit some of the newer scientific casios solar powered too

Quote:

Originally posted by Devil6

I've always been a fan of the Abacus


you never have to worry about batteries or light if it's solar powered

wrd i got that too yoo

ive uses a texas insturament ti-89 does calculus functions

Quote:

Originally posted by arch009

ive uses a texas insturament ti-89 does calculus functions

yeah, i'm just reading up on that particular one.

http://www.rskey.org/detail.asp?manufacturer=Texas+Instruments&model=TI-89

They still make calculators?

Wow...totally didn't know that calculators were such a big deal or that they came in so many varieties...wild.

as an engineering student i can tell you that the most popular calculators to have are the TI-83+ and the TI-89

Just buy and use a laptop with mathcad or similar or any scientific calculation program... and you can look at WBW too whilst you work (With WI-Fi or bluetooth mobile phone modem).

go with a TI-89...i've got one and love it. pretty much does everything, or the TI-92 with is pretty much the same thing except has a keyboard.

a laptop + mathematica 6 software

I have a Casio Fx 9860 G SD.
It has everything that I need, but the only minus is it's lack of symbolic calculation.

The screen is big, and the "text book display" is very handy when doing long calcutations.
There are 2 models, the G SD model with SD-card slot, and the G model without card slot.

(this calculator works well on my engineering studies, but I might have to buy a symbolic calculator at some point, so you might want to consider those. For example Texas TI-89 is a good one)

I have a degree in math and the Ti-89 is bomb-diggety. Buy it and don't look back!

I had a ti 86 and and 89, the 86 easier to use most the same features, 89 with some work is great depends one the power you need

TI-89 is great for symbolic calculus and 3d graphing. If you don't need those go w/ the 83+. I've got both (I had "lost" my 83 and bought an 89 to replace it, only to find my 83).

Quote:

Originally posted by *PiRo*[-_-

*]
Just buy and use a laptop with mathcad or similar or any scientific calculation program... and you can look at WBW too whilst you work (With WI-Fi or bluetooth mobile phone modem).

you know i would agree with this except there are just some places you don't want to take a laptop with you. say for instance a swamp that you are doing a site survey on. or the dessert, or.... well i don't know, but i am sure there are more