Texas Instruments TI-36X Pro Engineering/Scientific Calculator | 9.7 Inch | Black.

I bought this calculator for my upcoming FE Exam in October 2013. I have been using it for the past couple of months to get acquainted and to study. When I was in school I used the TI-89 Titanium religiously. Unfortunately thats not permitted on the FE exam so I chose this one. Upon using it I must say that for a non-graphic calculator its fantastic. The shortcut keys (for exponents, powers of 10, fractions, etc.) are a nice touch. The built in equation solver, polynomial equation solver, system of equation solver certainly shave a lot of time off of my calculations concerning static equilibrium, quadratic equations and circuits. This calculator also does Matrices, up to 3x3 and vectors in three dimensions. It even has popular constants (permittivity, Boltzmann, Ideal Gas, standard atm, etc) built in along with a whole conversion menu. On top of that it does numerical integration and numerical derivatives and plenty of other things Im probably not going to mention. I consider it to be more user friendly than the TI-89 Titanium because of the shortcut keys and nice interface. For example, to calculate a determinant on the TI-89 you must press 2nd, MATH then scroll to Matrix, then select Det( and press enter. Then you have to remember the syntax which is det([a1, a2, a3][b1, b2, b3][c1, c2, c3]) and finally press enter. On the Ti-36X Pro all you have to do is press 2nd, Matrix and scroll to edit and enter how many columns and rows you want in the specified matrix, press enter and then put in your values. Then once the values are saved you go back to the Matrix menu and select Determinant and put in the name of the matrix where you saved the information. Pretty slick for a smaller calculator. The four line display provides enough room to see what your doing and the text is fairly large which I like. With the bigger calculators you usually have to squint to see some numbers, especially in low-light situations. This calculator also features Mathprint. This means that fractions, integrals and most other mathematical notation shows up as its supposed to. However if you dont like this there is a feature to turn it off. This is especially useful for when youre calculating something like a parallel resistance circuit and you want to see that big fraction to make sure you didnt make a mistake. Of course no review is complete without listing the gripes. Theres not too many problems with this calculator however there are something that really bug me. The first one being that there is no option to toggle insert like the TI-89 has. Usually I find myself needed to edit an equation that I just entered. Therefore I have to press second, then insert and put whatever I needed into the equation. Not a big deal but can get annoying at times. Second, I dont like the chrome arithmetic buttons. At times I find myself hitting the subtract button when I wanted to do some addition. However I solved this problem by running a fine-tipped sharpie over the buttons and rubbing off the excess on the surface. Now the symbols have a black color in contrast with the chrome. Much easier to see and I suggest this method if anyone else has this problem. Third, you must press a button multiple times to get what you need. For example say I want to type a complex number (3+5i) on the screen. I press 3, +, 5 and then I have to press the pi, e, i key three times just to get the i symbol. Can be a bit annoying/frustrating and you might make a mistake if youve had way too much caffeine as I normally do. Although I suppose they had to do this to consolidate space in the design process so I can respect that. Just a little annoying but I guess it comes with the territory. This can add a bit of time to the learning curve if youre not used to these multipress buttons. Thats basically it. For a non-graphing calculator I give it a 9/10. Comparing budget calculators, Ive had the TI-30Xa and the Ti-30XIIS before and this one blows them out of the water obviously, hence the name TI-36X PRO. Ive never had a Casio calculator so I cant compare. With this many features and usability at the price of $17 or so its certainly an exemplary buy. A great budget engineering calculator and certainly the best to use on the FE exam in my opinion. Go with this one!

So, I needed this 36X for a Calculus based Physics-2 class. Who knows why this teacher allows this, but not the graphing type calculators. This does so much of what my N-Spire does. Sure, the N-Spire CASdoes more, but really, I just dont think it does much more that gets used on a daily basis. In fact, Ive been using my TI-36X now more and more as a daily driver. When I want to plug and chug numbers, the TI-36X is now my go to calculator. Most of the time, the TI N-Spire just made things take longer to do. Even turning the thing on takes longer. It was like the N-Spire CAS did so much, that it was just in its own way. At that point its in my way. I need to take a class on how to use it. I bought an instructional book and its like 500 pages thick. Matrices; I gave up and grabbed my TI-84. The TI 36X to me is just a higher end, plain old scientific calculator. It doesnt graph, which is kind of its thing because it does just about everything else. Diff Eq., Systems of Eq., vectors (dot and cross products), Integrals, derivatives, blah, blah, blah. It just doesnt have a graphing function. If youre kind of past that, then this will do you just fine. If you dont need it, but need something with more higher end functions, then this is good. I came from a TI-84 and used it for everything for years. It was fine. I thought the N-spire was a step up, but I personally have found that I just need a solid, predictable, easy calculator, and this 36X seems to fit the bill. I motor through Thermodynamics, Physics-2 and Differential equations now no problem. That makes me happy. Its light, its solar, its got a little bigger screen than most, and its easy. Oh, and really cheap at $20! Thats 15% of what I paid for my TI N-Spire CAS. Unless we can work out our differences through better communication and counseling, I have a feeling there is going to be a N-Spire CAS divorce here soon...

I am a fan of this calculator, it is an updated version of the one I used through high school and part of college. I got this for my son for high school, it took a little bit to teach his some of the functions, but it made a real difference once he got the hang of it. It is something that is worth every penny.

This calculator has complex number support (rectangular and polar form) and is usually sufficient for DC and AC circuit analysis. It has real matrix support but not complex matrix support so it can be used to solve systems of equations in mesh and nodal analysis in DC circuits but not AC circuits. In my experience most faculty dont require a calculator that can solve complex matrices in AC circuits.

I hate math with a passion, but I am so glad I have this calculator.

Useful for land surveying classes and calculations. One thing I dislike is the cover. It’s not particularly a smooth process to get it on or off.

It came delivered nicely and the packaging for the item made the item feel really new. This has helped me in my math class!

This is my favorite calculator for nearly all calculations. Some of my favorite features: 1. Just one keystroke to put the exponent on a number in scientific notation. Ive always been annoyed by the fact that I have to do 2nd EE on TI 83s and TI84s and TI30XIIs to do that. (Do NOT use the 10 to the x key for scientific notation; that puts numbers in two memory locations.) 2. The multiple keys that you can hit twice or three times to change the operation, for example if you hit the sin key once you can calculate the sine of an angle, but if you hit it twice in succession it becomes the inverse sine. Same with the cos and tan keys, as well as an ln log key, e^ and 10^, and others. 3. Being able to hop in and out of expressing numbers as multiples of pi rapidly, and in and out of fraction to decimals rapidly. There are other features I like that dont come to mind right now, but those are the top favorites for me. My gripe had been the silver color of the operation keys along the right side. (The divide by, multiplication, subtraction, and addition keys.) I fixed that by cutting a white label into a narrow strip, sticking it just to the right of those keys, and writing the operations on that so theyre easy to read. Otherwise I had to look close at those keys, and in some lighting situations they were too hard to see (virtually impossible in dim light). I thought maybe I could doctor up the indentations with a very fine paintbrush and black paint, but the label was quick and easy.

Classic TI calculator. Does the job.

Muy funcional