Should I get the TI-Nspire calculator?

Question

I'm gonna be a freshman in high school this year and I'm gonna be in geometry and biology. I have used a TI-84 calculator for algebra and it worked fine.

I'm wondering if I should get a TI-nSpire (a new calculator from texas instruments). My dad will pay most of it.

But is it worth it for those features and stuff? I would also use the nspire for algebra 2, and other advanced math in later years if I don't lose it.

Thanks!

Answer 1

The TI-nSpire CAS is designed like a "prettier" version of the TI-89 Titanium (TI-89T, I'll call it), but it isn't necessarily more functional or easier to use.

I'm only going from second-hand experience, but everything I've seen promoting the TI-nSpire has been related to nicer visuals and multiple visualizations for the same data.  For visual people, it is nice that it can display multiple shades instead of just "dark" and "not dark", and it is designed to allow different representations of data at the same time (which the TI-89T does to a degree).

So if you are good at using devices but struggle with visualizing data, you can probably get the TI-nSpire CAS to help you with interpreting information. However, it doesn't seem like it will come naturally to most people without reading a manual, so it all depends on your abilities.

Note that there is also a TI-nSpire that isn't the more advanced "CAS" version, which has a switchable keypad to make it more like TI-83/84. I wouldn't recommend that one, since it doesn't have the advanced CAS features of TI-89T which makes it not much of an upgrade from what you already have.

Now, the big downside of even the TI-nSpire CAS is that it doesn't have the compatibility with independent programs which the TI-89T currently does.  People also seem to dislike it compared to the TI-89T, but that may just be due to personal opinion or familiarity.  It doesn't seem to have much functionally above the TI-89 Titanium; it just has nicer visuals.

They continue to try to improve the TI-nSpire CAS's software, but it hasn't matched the TI-89 Titanium. Maybe it will in time, or maybe a new calculator will.

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I would say that, for now, you're probably okay with the TI-84.

In algebra classes, you often are not allowed calculators such as the TI-89 or TI-nSpire CAS because they do symbolic algebra manipulation (what they call CAS). That means that they can solve most algebraic equations that you get in high school or early college algebra classes merely by having you type them in. That's why they end up banned on tests (as you mentioned). So the TI-nSpire CAS would be banned just as often as the TI-89 would, and the one without CAS isn't a worthwhile upgrade from the TI-84.

In the future, if you plan to go into anything related to science or mathematics (or even just take college-level courses that will require some of that), I would recommend a TI-89 (or maybe something else by than). However, that's for using it for elaborate algebraic equations, calculus, and so forth.

Generally, any class that is just "algebra" won't need (or allow) something more than a TI-83/84/86.

Honestly, unless your class is being taught in a way that requires the use of a graphing calculator or involves things useful to graph, put in a table, etc., then you really don't need anything more than a two-line scientific calculator.

Answer 2

buy a TI-89 and it will stay with you until you finish you phd if you went that far! I've been using it since high school and now I'm almost done with my masters... never had any problem with it!