Dorky Poll: What Color Is Your Calculator?

The TI-30Xa! (Because it's the closest thing to the calculator I used in high school, and costs about 10 bucks). I bought a dozen of them and distributed them throughout my lab so there's always one at hand. Or at least that was the idea: it seems like I can never find one when I need one.

Still using my trusty TI-85 that I got in 10th grade in 1995 :p

I can't believe you left off Excel! Excel FTW!

I'm still using my Casio fx-250h that I've had since my sophomore year in high school, which was...umm...15+ years ago?

It still works, and I've only had to replace the batteries once or twice in all that time. (Which may say more about how often I use the thing than about how long its batteries last...)

I use online sites as calculators, especially the great University of Nice collection of specialized online calculators, and the Alpertron. I still use my K&E Log Log Decitrig Slide Rule, with original leather case and manual. But see:
Tools of American Mathematics Teaching, 1800â2000, by Peggy Aldrich Kidwell, Amy Ackerberg-Hastings and David Lindsay Roberts, is a historical survey of several of the objects that have formed, at some point during the past 200 years, the âmaterial cultureâ of the American mathematics classroom. Each chapter is an essay focusing on one particular kind of object. Some treat things that are in general use, such as textbooks, blackboards and overhead projectors. Others study objects that are found almost exclusively in the mathematics classroom: protractors, blocks, beads, geometric models, slide rules, graph paper and the like. The four final essays focus on electronic technology.

SpeedCrunch fills most of my calculatory needs, so I hardly ever need to grab an actual handheld calculator, since I'm usually working with a computer anyways when I need some calculating done.

One of my friends in grad school at MIT wrote a fantastic command-line style calculator called Eval that I still use all the time...

http://www.willus.com/archive/

I would be ecstatic to get this ported to my iPhone...

What kind of physicist are you? You left the HP 11C off of the list!

For most simple math, Google Calculator is usually closest to hand.

For anything beyond that, HP50G.

google is my calculator. try it.

I also use bash, python, perl, awk, and various other linux utilities -- whatever I happen to have handy.

-kevin

I still use the TI-85 that I bought in college for one of my physics classes back in 1996. Other than that the keys stick a bit due to a tequila accident, it still works great!

My calculator is blue... oh wait.

I actually use EasyCalc on a Palm Zire 31 most of the time -- great program, horribly overpowered -- but I also carry a TI-83 (which helped me finish college calculus over a decade ago) and a TI-30XS Multiview (which is just a cool piece of hardware all around).

HP 35s, cause when you get used to RPN you won't switch back!

I end up using bc in a terminal window. Been doing it for decades and just drift back to it all the time. Simple for me.

I second the google search bar, since it does unit conversions and has physical constants built in. For stuff it can't handle I turn to wolfram alpha.

HP32SII. RPN forever!

I still use the HP-11C that I saved up my money to buy in college in 1981. My daughter uses it now. The thing is indestructible, unlike the TI calculators it replaced. I'll have to buy my daughter a TI graphing calculator at some point, because that's what they use in her high school, but at least she learned RPN.

Seeing some of the comments, I also use google and excel at times, depending on what I'm doing. I just don't have a computer in the lab (nor the bench space for one if it was an option).

The discovery of google's ability to do math and conversions was a happy day.

I'm not the only one with a 10+ year old (scientific) calculator? I'm not sure where it is right now but I got it in 8th grade. I have a Casio on my desk but it isn't nearly as indestructible as that TI I got 20 years ago. Eight years old and several keys are sticky.

I use Window's calculator sometimes (in sci. mode) and Excel, too.

Oops, that Casiofx-260 is 11 years old - bought it for my last semester of undergrad. But the 4 has been sticky for at least 5 years.

I work on the Pacific Tech Graphing Calculator software.

I'm still very fond of the TI-81 I've had since high school, but as I spend nearly all my work time in front of a computer, my real answer is the Python interactive prompt and/or the "units" Unix utility, depending on whether dimensional analysis is relevant.

TI-86 for quick number crunching, Google for anything with units, Mathematica for tedius algebra/calculus.

I use an HP-22S, which I have had for more than 20 years, for most of my calculations. (Despite being an HP, it does not use RPN.) Sometimes I use the Calculator widget that comes with MacOS, and when I'm balancing my checkbook I use a solar-powered four-function calculator.

I note that you passed up the chance to poll on the RPN vs. standard notation holy war.

I was reminded of a story I heard about some students in a programming class who had an assignment to write a four-function calculator. Noting a loophole in the specs, they wrote a calculator that worked with Roman numerals, and they included an instruction manual written in Latin. I didn't find confirmation with Google, but I did find Compvter Romanvs, which does the same thing.

Usually Excel, but also Google or a graphing calculator (TI-83)

I use the same sparkly TI-83 Silver that I got for my first high school math class. Of course, as a mathphobic biologist, I basically use it for arithmetic and demonstratin that homozygotes should always outnumber heterozygotes.

I like the Casio fx-115 series scientific calculators.

I wrote a calculator program for the Radio Shack Color Computer, that was RPN and did error propagation. But CoCos are thin on the ground these days.

As an undergraduate student, I actually occupy several different poll positions.

If I'm using a calculator, I usually use my trusty TI-89 (Titanium), though sometimes I use web-based ones like Google or Wolfram Alpha if I'm doing something complicated that's not worth pulling out a CAS for, but is still too sensitive (involving many unit conversions, for example) to trust to the TI.

Most of the time, though, I don't actually need a calculator, since most of the classes at my school rely on analytic and symbolic computation, only rarely venturing into actual calculation--while a CAS could probably do those things for me, that would be rather dramatically missing the point.

I buy the simplest, portable one I can find. We use it for things like calculating our taxes. My kids, however use TI-84 graphing calculators.

My favorite calculator story comes from a friend. Every year his father'd use his calculator when doing taxes. Then he'd check his results with an abacus.

For quick calculations I use the PEMADS dashboard widget on Mac OS X http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/calculate_convert/pemdas.html. It is very easy to use and fairly feature complete. For anything more complex I fire up python (with NumPy installed) or Octave. I don't like doing things in Matlab/Mathematica/Maple if I can avoid it because I don't want to be tied to expensive licenses that I may not always have access to.

I am proud to report that I generally use my Casio fx-82A. I have a TI-85 and TI-86 at home, but don't bring them to work as they aren't really needed, and have actual value, unlike the Casio. It is turned on and off with a switch. That's right, a switch, no button technology here! The internets tell me that it was manufactured in 1985.

For something extended and pencil+paper, like taxes or problem sets, I use my TI-89. For quick things, especially unit conversions, google. Everything else, Matlab!

I use a TI-84. It currently has a blue faceplate and an orange cover, but I enjoy changing the faceplate.

I love my TI-92, but I tend to use Excel or the arithmetic one on the computer more often nowadays.

HP48G. Hail RPN!
It caters to all my math whims, knows all the conversions I've ever needed, holds a library of physics equations (now either part of my DNA or unnecessary to me but that's beside the point) _and_ it lets me play Tetris.

Pen+paper, order of magnitude in my head a lot, Excel, Google. Google a lot. Just remember 180/pi when needed.

Nobody here uses bc?

If I'm doing a calculation that has units, I always use Google.

I used to be able to use the abacus on my coffee table for basic arithmetic and square- and cube-roots, but I've forgotten how now.

I can't believe you left off RPN based calculators. My very first calculator was the Friden 132 which belonged to the high school. It was an RPN calculator with a CRT for display. My first personal calculator was the HP-35, then the 45 now I own 2 hp 32s. Long live RPN.

I am deeply offended that you think the TI-30Xa is a "scientific calculator". It is a wannabe scientific calculator that has no clue how to handle parentheses. There are also still a few pretenders out there that can't evaluate -3^2 correctly.

I prefer the Casio fx-115. Solar power, numerical integrals and complex arithmetic, two-line entry or built-up formula display. Totally rocks, and you can buy 5 of them for the price of a TI-84 with its hideously bad graphs. The other three are all different brands, while my K+E log log decitrig sits nearby as emergency backup.

PS - You also left off the high end ones that can do algebra, like a TI-9x.

Whenever possible, I still use a slide rule. Use a paper tape calculator when doing taxes.

RPN. For computer stuff HP16, now in emulation on both my MacBook and my iPhone. For everything else, HP41CX, also now in emulation on both platforms. I sold my hard copies about a year before getting a new job where I needed them again.

For really quick ad-hoc on the run / restaurant stuff, my Casio Data Bank 150 wrist-watch, aka my Geek Badge of Honor.

The argument, back in the mid 60's (Sinclair Z1 days) went something like: if we let the kids use calculators, they'll forget / never learn how to do mental arithmetic". Guess what? They did.

I use a combination of Wolfram|Alpha, quickmath.com, and google.

What I use depends on where I am. Mostly I'll use Excel, though for the occasional basic calculation, the basic form of the Windows calculator does fine. If I'm away from a computer (rare) I'll use the calculator on my cellphone, though I find it awkward to use (the numbers are around the wrong way!). I much prefer Excel, or anything that lets you review the calculation you inputted.

Well, I'm old enough that I didn't get my first calculator until my last year of grad school, so I am still pretty comfortable with a slide rule. I do own a Casio Scientific calculator, however my favorite tool for casual calculation is Maxima - an open source (and improved) version of the Macsyma symbolic math package.

I said TI-84 if only because I have one here I used it for an economics class. I had programmed in all the formulas etc. I had a menu that let you choose the sub-app then it'd prompt for parameters and show data and graphs.

However I do love the calculator on my iPod Touch. Held vertically it's a four banger, flip it horizontal and you get a decent scientific calculator.

Does parenthetical, 1/x, x^2, x^3, y^x, x!, sqrt, x-sqrt-y, log, sin, cos, tan, ln, sinh, cosh, tanh, e^x, deg, pi, EE, Random, and then the sin/cos/tan et have the -1 complement.

Works well enough. Doesn't graph though.

I keep a graphing calculator that I bought for calculus at my bench to figure out the stoichiometry of all the reagents I need to add for my reactions. If I had to spend that much money on it, I'm sure as hell going to get as much use out of it as I can, even though all I use it for is basic addition, multiplication and addition. It does seem to be more resistant to various solvents than cheaper calculators though.

I've actually long been bothered by one thing about the calculator world: the value proposition for the typical graphing calculator is terrible in terms of power, and the few halfway-decent ones (HP-50, TI-Nspire) are restricted in one way or another to prevent cheating. Well, what about those of us who want actual power? The HP calculator has a crippled IR port (so people can't beam answers to each other in exams), but it can't be hacked? And the Nspire is a lobotomized piece of junk -- not even worth purchasing because it doesn't come close to using all its capabilities.

(2nd year CS college student)

I use whatever's handy. When I'm at my computer I use Maxima for the "work out problem into numbers, then paste into calculator" sort of problem, and CAS-y problems, but I find its language, and GUI (wxMaxima), clunky. When I want to do something more algorithmic, I reach for a Haskell, E, or Common Lisp REPL; sometimes the handiest thing for simple arithmetic is to enter an eval command at the MOO I'm always on. If I need units, Google Calculator.

Away from the computer, I have a TI-89 which I bought for use in classes after very little research; I'm reasonably happy with it and am glad I didn't get a TI-84 instead; I find it less clunky than Maxima, but it doesn't get as much use this semester because I'm usually doing homework on my laptop and so retyping the numbers in both directions isn't worth the trouble (and there's less in-class-rather-than-homework calculation this semester). I've learned to program it, but haven't found any uses for doing so.

I can't stand âfour-functionâ parenthesisless calculators.

I agree with Kevin - I usually use google for my calculator. It is awesome and quick. Way quicker than Excel.

Who uses a calculator? I have one of those new fangled computer things and just fire up Excel or Numbers when I want to add up a few numbers.

Oh, and I've been meaning to get around to learning to use a slide rule, but haven't had the time...

Still using the same Sharp EL-5100S that I got in college. Haven't ever changed the batteries, either. Of course, any more I use it about once a month.

Google!

Of course I use an HP-41CX and since they have an HP-41CX app for the iPhone I can really look like a geek and perform all sorts of calculations for industrial hygiene, occupational toxicology, and potent compound safety. Ever since engineering school I can't seem to use anything else.

I had a graphing calculator once (TI-89), but it got stolen when I was doing "late-night drop-in before finals" tutoring. But I'm not bitter.

So I mostly use a mash of things these days. Google is best for doing unit conversions (I'm lazy). For geek points though, my father's old slide rule tie clip probably takes the cake.

I answered "I wrote my own symbolic algebra calculator in Perl", but this is a slight lie. I wrote it in Haskell.

I might also add that in my bioinformatics day job, I have seriously used both a soroban and two slide rules (1930s-era Mannheim-type and 1960s-era Pickett).

One more post and I swear I'll stop hogging...

I forgot to mention YAUC, which is the program I use for unit conversions. It doesn't include smoots or potrzebies, but it has an obscenely large number of conversion factors for most usages.

Also, when I was in high school (early 90s) graphing calculators were still a bit of a curiosity and I only ever knew three people who had them (including, for about a month until I dropped it and shattered the display, me). So I mostly used scientific calculators unless the teacher required otherwise, but damned if I didn't kill and/or lose quite a few of them. In the space of about three years I probably went through Casio's entire low-end scientific line at least once, possibly twice. When I see my obsolete but still-functional TI-83 (I just had to replace the batteries on it actually), I find the fact that I've held on to that one damn calculator for well over a decade to be amusing at the very least.

I use a Casio fx-82ES because it's the calculator that is permited for use by the German school kids that I teach maths to.

Yet another vote for RPN!
(quickly checks....) Yup. The mighty HP28s. For 'simple' numerical calcs.

Err...and MatLab for more interesting stuff.

I'll add my voice to those who still use the HP 11C they bought back in the early '80s. Can't believe it still works. And I found an iPhone app that mimics it, including the back panel!

TI-36X.

And what is the deal with the font used in the Windows Calculator? The minus looks like a decimal point. You'd think after 20+ years and a hundred gazillion units sold they'd spend 15 minutes on a decent user interface.

Early this year I stumbled across my sliderule from college. (In the early seventies calculators were just becoming affordable and available to the masses, but most institutions of higher learning still frowned upon their use in labs and during tests.) I made an effort to reaquaint myself with it and am now using it whenever possible, just for the novelty of it. While I obviously need to fall back onto more modern calculating devices for some things, I'm still pulling out the old sliderule just for the perverse joy of seeing the looks on the faces of the twenty-something crowd who seemingly have never seen one in the flesh.

Any HP RPN calculator that is at hand.

I use an HP 12 C with RPN that I won almost 20 years ago when I returned a product registration card. I used up all my luck then. If I'd have known, I would have saved it for the Lotto game.

For most things I use my head or a piece of paper. If I was doing homework I would use google calculator. If I was in a lab, then i might use a tiny little pocket calculator (not even scientific). To be perfectly honest I don't think I've used my graphing calculator since high school when they told us we absolutely needed them for college.

HP 11C or bc. And occasionally Maple.

Oh, and thank you, Ron Avitzur, for the graphing calculator and the DDJ articles on handwriting recognition :)

For the others: go see his Google TechTalk on how the Graphing Calculator application ended up being shipped on the original PowerMacs!

In fact, I am not deeply - or even shallowly - offended, but that was the only option that permitted explanation in a comment, that was my vote.

I switch between Windows Calculator - but *not* the default view, the Scientific view (but since I don't know whether it's equivalent to a TI-30XA or not, I didn't choose that option) - and the Python interactive interpreter (if I want to be able to make sure I've typed in the numbers correctly).

I am still using the HP-11C that I got as a freshman in 1980 (that's right...1980).

Comment #55 looks suspiciously spammy to me.

Another vote for the missing RPN option. I have HP models 33s & 35s. I like the 2 line displays on both, and the classic HP style of the 35s, though I dislike the way you have to scroll to the exponent in auto precision mode. Why does it show 10 sig figs and not the exponent (if it's negative or more than 1 digit). Oh well, otherwise my prefered calculator, when Matlab is not handy.

I use the Perl command line calculator.

I used to have one on my wristwatch, but now I have an iPhone. If that won't handle it, or there are numerous steps involved, or if I want a pie chart or other simple graphic, I just use excel. Though I've been known to add JavaScript to .PDF files and make them do the math on all those tax forms & worksheets etc. Having sudden flashbacks to the days of inserting dot commands into dBase III code to make it calculate percentages. Oy.