Hi all,

I just wanted to survey the community out there to find out what college engineering/physics/math majors do for their mobile computing needs.

Do you use a calculator (normal, graphing)? Paper and pencil? A laptop computer with some software package? Your PDA? Some combination of the above?

I currently own and use an HP-49G+ graphing calculator for most everything that I need, but see that there are some seemingly good mathematics packages out there for PDAs (SpaceTime and MathTablet are two that look good). If you use a PDA, what software do you use?

Thanks for all your replies and insights.

Phillip

 

If you are used to HP there is a free emulator which is very good. Go to HPCalc.org to get it. It would allow you to have a 49 in your Pocket PC.

 

Mobile computing wasn't even an issue when I was going to college. Most engineers in my office, including myself, still use HP's. I love RPN. For me, it was a natural progression to migrate to the EMU 48 48g emulator. You could try that or an emulator for the HP49g. Free is nice.

This has been discussed before. Just try searching and you will find...

Anyway, being an engineering student, I use some of the things you mention. At home I use Maple 10 and (sometimes) Matlab. On the go I use my Axim with powerOne Graph (unfortunately not yet available natively for PPCs, so I use a palm emulator -styletap) which has the functionality a TI 83 has, including operations with matrixes with complex numbers and graphs, and qdCAS, a computer algebra system for the PPC. I tried SpaceTime (not the free one) which is quite complete (can do 3d and 4d graphs), but I didn't like the interface (too cramped, compared to powerOne Graph which has an excellent interface). I tried the HP emulator, but I found it to be almost useless, because the interface is not meant for PDAs, so I found myself tapping on the emulated calculator screen, and finding nothing happened.

If you like powerOne Graph, I emailed the company (Infinity Softworks) and was told a version for the PPC was in the works, but didn't tell me when it would be released (I don't think anytime soon).

I graduated in '87 from U of Illinois. We used pencil and paper. Computers were out there, and I remember using an early b & w spreadsheet program in the one computer at the library. I don't mean to take over the thread, I just think it's great that you now have so many tools. However, I vote for pencil and paper b/c that forces you to learn.

---Steve-O

Check out Stevenator65 Weblog. It's back and worse than ever!

        

for the PPC SpaceTime is the best I've found.

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I did ALOT of 3d animation of math concepts with Maple 10 (and 9) in undergrad (for research). For math, here is what i think:

Computer: it is nice, has power, can do lots of neat visual things, but its expensive and often the user interface isnt very good for math programs

Calculator (TI89)- i have used this since the day they came out 7 years ago. They can do almost everything a computer can do, and its portable and (in my mind) has a much easier user interface

Spacetime for PDA: The professor i did research with bought the full version and i have tried the trial version. All my professor can say about this is that he LOVES IT. But, from what i have seen it seems that Spacetime has similar capabilites as a TI89, but it is able to make prettier graphs than the 89.

How does it compare in capabilities to Math Tablet? I see that the graphs look much better (and it supports 3d graphs), but in terms of functions, how do they compare?

Also, how does input on the PDA compare to the tactile (ie, button) input of a calculator?

Thanks,
Phillip

 

I prefer the tactile feeling of buttons (rubber ones at that) to the prod action on a pda screen (he says, dutifully tapping out on the on-screen keyboard)

I'm doing a part-time degree in the UK & whatever is the ultimate emulated calculator, or application, I wouldn't be able to use it in exam conditions.

Learn-ding is gud