Highly capable handheld calculators, particularly with good graphing capabilities, are a powerful tool. USMA has decided to use various calculators in support of its mathematics (and other technical) curriculum. Because of this, I have learned a little bit about such calculators and captured some of this in several documents. These articles were primarily written to help me understand and remember how to use the calculators (and, to a lesser extent, to be a tool in learning how to use the SGML DocBook document type).
The HP48 was used by the Academy for several years, and as a result a number of different programs were written for it by various instructors.
Newer classes at USMA have adopted the TI-89. This leads to the same kind of examination of what programs are available for the calculator and how to use the calculator's capabilities effectively as part of MA206. The current version of this document is available in PDF format or in its Nuweb/LaTeX source. The ASCII program files are available separately as a Zip archive. While I’m not aware of any bugs in these programs, they are not guaranteed in any way; use them at your own risk. If you have suggestions, comments, or bug reports, email me at <mark.wroth@us.army.mil>.
There is an older version of this document here (DocBook source)
The Texas Instruments TI-89 page is another source of useful information, as is ticalc.org.
This page last edited 2002-06-22