Ti-89 is one of the most talked about calculator made by Texas Instruments. When I was told that we will be using it in our engineering classes I was really excited to get my hands on one of them. The multifunctional keys, support for various types of mathematical calculations, support for the graphics and many other key features were included in this wonderful machine. All my excitement did not last longer when I found out that this wonderful calculator was not user friendly. This calculator was designed thinking that some kind of pre requisite course will be taken before putting it into real use in a course where calculator was required. The multifunctional features which I was hoping to be very useful proved me wrong as it increased the complexity of the calculator so much that even after practice I was not able to use it properly in the examination. It cost me my grade and also made me doubtful about the usage of the calculator. Now every time I used it I needed to recheck my solutions to prevent the mistakes. This rechecking again cost me time which I might have efficiently utilized to do better in other sections of my exam.
I will try to make my point clear by giving this simple example that will focus on the usage of calculator and the design of the calculator. Ti-89 is really a powerful tool but the way it is designed is really making it difficult for the uses to utilize it completely to its potential.
The simplest of the things that a student would like to do using the calculator is to be able to solve algebraic equations and my experience with TI-89 is not worth remembering. I was taking my basic engineering course in which we were supposed to use TI-89 for solving mathematical equations. I picked my calculator for the first time and there was white light in the whole room as I tried to turn it on but the room soon became darker and darker as I was not able to find the turn on button. There was no visual contrast between the buttons to enable to recognize them at the very first look and if there was some that was not distinguishable. I finally turned it on and now I was confused looking at the screen and the only question in my mind was how I am going to solve the equation? It was the so called “home page” on the screen saying nothing but showing me a lot of icons. I was supposed to find the one that I required but how? Then I found out that there were few scroll keys to go up and down the items and for selection there is enter button. I was happy that I knew that much about the calculator now.
The real problem started now. I selected some icon on the screen and found out that it was not the one that was going to help me solve equation. That’s fine; but how to go back on the “home page” now? There was nothing on the screen that was telling me to get out from this crisis. I had to struggle a lot to find a way to get back to the main page. It was one tiny button on the leftmost corner in fourth row that had ‘HOME’ written on it. I pressed the home key. I was hoping the magic will work. But no there was still little twist remaining. I was supposed to press the diamond key on top of it before hitting the home key. This was just the primary tasks but my problem was still standing tall on me “how to solve the equation”? Anyhow I was back on main page now.
It was time for me to get some help. I tried using the solution manual but I guess manual writer seems more confused than me. The complications were piling up for me one by one. But after spending almost half an hour I figured out that if I press F2 key it will take me to a screen where I can write my equation and then probably get them solved. I thought this might be the end of my misery. I was finally at a place where I can get my answer. Just write the equation and get the answer. But still struggle was waiting for me. I typed the equation and got the answer but I was surprised to know that my answers were different from rest of the class. This was because of the fact that if you write an equation for example “3x + 6 = 10” then it will not take 3x as multiplication of 3 and the variable x instead you have to put 3 * x to get the correct answer. There was no such written on the manual.
Another problem with TI-89 that I faced was when I was solving a trigonometric problem. The problem required me to calculate cos (π) value. There are two modes to calculate trigonometric values; one is radian mode and other one is degree mode. Both modes give different results which was why I ended up spending hours solving a problem. We were given a problem in Calculus 1 class which included calculating the values for these trigonometric functions. Our whole class was getting two types of answers and that was how we found out about this unique mistake which we were liable to make during examination.
TI-89 is called as graphing calculator as well. It was the basic purpose behind the invention of TI-89. The problem is that when you plot more than one function graph together; it is very difficult to distinguish between them because of lack of color screen. When you draw two or more graphs it will show two or more lines intersecting at different places without any indication of which line belongs to which equation. If it had the option of choosing different colors for different lines then life would have been much comfortable.
It is indeed true that “All that glitters is not gold”.
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