Why do TI calculators cost so much

I got my TI-Nspire for $99. They're expensive because people will buy them at that cost because they are the best and needed for many fields.

why get the inspire when you can get the 89 which looks soooo much better and is the best calculator I have ever owned lol. All the way since 1998

Also, the 89 has better programming support by miles and have support for 3-D graphing which is useful in courses like Calc 3

The Nspire was aimed for HS use whereas the 89/voyage is more for science/engineering according to TI

dukebound85 said:

why get the inspire when you can get the 89 which looks soooo much better and is the best calculator I have ever owned lol. All the way since 1998

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It can't be used on Standardized tests for one thing

Somehow I think that is nicer than the ti-89 that I bought a few weeks ago for 150. Mind you it was to replace my broken voyager 200 which is also by TI and uses the same os. My guess is it is a graphed and mostly you are paying for the software. You will not be able to find any app for you iPod that does 1/10 of the stuff the TI can do.
I like my 89 and it has been something that I trust. I love my voyager 200 and I knew how to use it to do some very powerful stuff in calculus and some other upper lv stuff. Any above the 84 is almost over kill unless you are planning on going beyond cal 2. I will use the 89 and above for it's pretty print and that is why I bought it to replace my broken 200 that I had been using before had. I need the pretty print so I could not. Just use my old 86.

Yes I have quite a few cals. The ones used the most are the ones that fails which was my 83 and 200

appleguy123 said:

It can't be used on Standardized tests for one thing

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lol true but then again, any professional tests will not allow any sort of programmable calculators

For instance, the FE exam forces one to use a select list of scientific calculators.

I have also had many upper level college math courses where they don't even use calculators (and they would not help) as it is more theory and proofs than number crunching

Rodimus Prime said:

Somehow I think that is nicer than the ti-89 that I bought a few weeks ago for 150. Mind you it was to replace my broken voyager 200 which is also by TI and uses the same os. My guess is it is a graphed and mostly you are paying for the software. You will not be able to find any app for you iPod that does 1/10 of the stuff the TI can do.
I like my 89 and it has been something that I trust. I love my voyager 200 and I knew how to use it to do some very powerful stuff in calculus and some other upper lv stuff. Any above the 84 is almost over kill unless you are planning on going beyond cal 2. I will use the 89 and above for it's pretty print and that is why I bought it to replace my broken 200 that I had been using before had. I need the pretty print so I could not. Just use my old 86.

Yes I have quite a few cals. The ones used the most are the ones that fails which was my 83 and 200

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Pretty print is the game changer for me. I hate using an 83. If you lose track of parenthesis, you are screwed. At least the 89 you can easily fix those types of mishaps lol

appleguy123 said:

It can't be used on Standardized tests for one thing

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I believe most graphers are banned on standardized test. I know the power of the 89 and they often get banned in college cal due to their raw power. I know on Texas FE exam they have a very limited list of allotted cals and the most powerful one is the ti-30

dukebound85 said:

lol true but then again, any professional tests will not allow any sort of programmable calculators

For instance, the FE exam forces one to use a select list of scientific calculators.

I have also had many upper level college math courses where they don't even use calculators (and they would not help) as it is more theory and proofs than number crunching

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1st, Why are you guys paying so much for your Nspires? That's crazy.
@Duke I'm in High-School, so I need one that I could use in the ACT.
Also, I quite like the Nspire, though I find myself using the 84 portion more because that's what my class has.

Rodimus Prime said:

I believe most graphers are banned on standardized test. I know the power of the 89 and they often get banned in college cal due to their raw power. I know on Texas FE exam they have a very limited list of allotted cals and the most powerful one is the ti-30

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It's not banned on the ACT...

Rodimus Prime said:

I believe most graphers are banned on standardized test. I know the power of the 89 and they often get banned in college cal due to their raw power. I know on Texas FE exam they have a very limited list of allotted cals and the most powerful one is the ti-30

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ACT permits some graphing. I think the thing that knocks the 89 off is not the raw power, but rather the ability to solve essentially any equation.

I know the CO FE, the calc I used was the TI-30X2S

Hard to go back to scientific if used to graphing. the whole having to write down values and then reenter them in equations is such a PITA compared to simply scrolling up and selecting the value you want to insert in the current equation like you can do with the 89

With that said, I am so glad that test is in the past....now heres to the PE right haha

appleguy123 said:

It's not banned on the ACT...

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The 89 is banned for ACT, as is the Nspire with CAS
http://www.actstudent.org/faq/answers/calculator.html

appleguy123 said:

It's not banned on the ACT...

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I never took the ACT and never will. I would of taken the ACT in 2000-01 back and I would of used an 83plus. I bought an 86 in 02 and got a voyager 200 at Christmas 03. Now that I am back in school and taking my first upper lv math course in 4-5 years I went out and replace my broken 200 with an 89 tituim for it pretty print alone. Mind you at the lv of course I am taking it is a lot more theory and we use a lot of single digits so a lot of the basic stuff you can do in you head.

And one going to upper lv you will learn the 90% of the upper lv stuff is basic algebra and less than 10% the upper lv stuff. Hence the reason our algrebra stuff in class is so basic no point to get ding on stupid stuff.

I defq on test most mistakes were in screwing up signs but I had the theory rig so I would only loss 1 point out of lile 10 on the problem

dukebound85 said:

The 89 is banned for ACT, as is the Nspire with CAS
http://www.actstudent.org/faq/answers/calculator.html

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I don't have the CAS model. Can someone explain the difference?

After using an HP calculator with RPN, I can't even think about going back to Algebraic entry. RPN is so efficient.

Hence I would go with the HP50G or similar -- well worth the price IMHO.

Damn, doesn't anybody use a slide rule anymore?

appleguy123 said:

I don't have the CAS model. Can someone explain the difference?

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Well CAS stands for Computer algebra system. That allows the calculator to solve formals imperially. For example you tell it to solve for x in this formal (y=mx+b) and it would kick out x= (y-b)/m. The 89 and above have that feature and that is why the 89 is banned on the ACT.
I can see that gave it to some other as well.

The CAS is something that i have used quite a bit when I have taken some math classes and it is great for breaking stuff down.

But for me the killer feature of the TI-89 is pretty print.

pilotError said:

Damn, doesn't anybody use a slide rule anymore?

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You can not even find those any more. In all honesty I have always kind of wanted one and wanted to learn how to use one just because it the slide rule I think is pretty cool.

It's a combination of things. Pocket calculators reached pretty much their apex of development some time back. The HP50G you can get today is a very incremental enhancement to the original HP48 that was available twenty years ago. In HP's defense, the modern $150 top-end price point is much lower than the HP48SX and, later, HP48G that popped up when I was in college.

On the other hand, manufacturers worked hard to cut deals with school boards and textbook publishers, and to overcome the idea that math education aided by a calculator wasn't really math education at all. So in particular we started seeing things like textbooks referring specifically to the TI-83, practically obliging school districts to buy truckloads of them.

So now you've got a stagnant technology with a captive audience. And that's why prices don't change.

pilotError said:

Damn, doesn't anybody use a slide rule anymore?

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I still have mine!

Although I haven't used it in quite some time.

ert3 said:

I dropped $150 dollars on my TI-Nspire which is crap for a computer compared to an ipod touch I found for $130.

source of anger: XKCD : 1996

Can we get an answer for why that calc costs so much

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Sole provider? Known around the world as good? So many answers. Side note: I still have my trusty TI-89 Titanium.

It served me well during the SATs, and my advanced Calculus college courses (Diff Equ, Linear Algebra and Multivariables). Math Department doesn't allow TIs for starter or semi advanced Calculus courses.

dukebound85 said:

lol true but then again, any professional tests will not allow any sort of programmable calculators

For instance, the FE exam forces one to use a select list of scientific calculators.

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P&P exam is the same way.

I've been in the business 16 years, and other than the occasional square root or reciprocal function, 99.99% of the time I could get by with a simple 4-function calculator from Staples or whatever.

I've never been a TI fan (they've ALWAYS been overpriced, IMO), for the past several years I've been using the Casio fx-115ES. Picked up a pair for about $11 each - one for my desk, one for the briefcase. And it's allowed on the FE and P&P exams.

Besides, there's very little that's funnier than watching an engineer who's used to a graphic and/or programmable calculator having to shift gears to a simpler one. Might as well start getting used to it now, I think.

appleguy123 said:

It can't be used on Standardized tests for one thing

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Actually, the SAT allows the 89 and the Nspire CAS. The improved numerical solve functions and the ability to determine the equality of expressions, etc, can prove very useful. The 89 and Nspire CAS are also both allowed on the AP Calculus AB/BC tests and the AP Physics C tests. On these exams, having one of these calculators can prove very, very helpful. The ability to integrate and differentiate functions can be quite helpful. Both calculators can also create Taylor Polynomials, though they appear on the noncalculator section.


I would however caution any student in using one of these calculators. Make sure that you know how to do something BEFORE you begin to rely on your calculator to do it for you. Most introductory college classes do not allow calculator use on exams (for example, you are often not allowed a calculator in MVC, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, etc), and reliance in High School can lead to very bad habits.


Depending on your needs wolframalpha.com may be able to do what you need. It has tremendous capability and accepts layman input along with Mathematica code.

My HP-48GX has a sweet 128K of memory. Booyah.
I've had it since 1994 and it's going strong. Got me through 3 science degrees, so no need to change now. I'd get an HP-15c if I could, just for the form factor, but they sell for several hundred dollars on eBay now. Crazy.

I love my TI 84-Plus Silver. Have I been able to use it for anything but basic arithmetic since highschool? Of course not...All of my college math classes have either been no-calculator, or scientific calculator only (my chem classes where scientific only as well). College calculus is almost all theory. They let you have a scientific one because they dont want you to feel cheated out of correct answers if you can do theory out your butt, but cant do arithmetic to save your life (like me ).

I use my TI 30x more than any other calculator. I had a TI scientific before this one, but this has 2 lines which makes it so much easier to do more complex operations.

Side note: My mom is a highschool math teacher, so she got the 84 at a conference and I swiped it when she got an nspire

gauchogolfer said:

I'd get an HP-15c if I could, just for the form factor, but they sell for several hundred dollars on eBay now. Crazy.

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I hear ya on the form factor.

Love my HP-12C.

The HP-15C was cool as well.

I dunno how some of you guys use RPN to be honest

Waste of money in my opinion, for basic crunching a calculator with natural input (i.e. fractions look like fractions) is good enough, anything else than you can use an iPhone or a computer.

dukebound85 said:

I dunno how some of you guys use RPN to be honest

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I'm one of the few engineers around my age group who dislikes RPN. The only HP calculator I've ever owned - a financial calculator - allows you to override RPN and use algebraic notation. I wouldn't have bought it otherwise.

danielcox said:

Waste of money in my opinion, for basic crunching a calculator with natural input (i.e. fractions look like fractions) is good enough, anything else than you can use an iPhone or a computer.

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Except that you can't use those on an exam.