Complex function plots on Plus42?

[carey]

(04-10-2024 05:17 AM)Csaba Tizedes Wrote:  

(04-09-2024 03:52 PM)carey Wrote:  Thank you Csaba!

These videos are great. Your use of popular calculators to do complex engineering computations and plots is amazing!

Thank you!
... and both without any programming.

Yes about “without any programming”!

What I find appealing about non-programming approaches to complex calculations (on non-flagship hardware) from a pedagogical perspective is that students are directly involved in the calculations (and the complex plane), and the calculations exploit the kinesthetic sense (an additional pathway to the brain), all helpful for learning.

These are unique features of using handheld calculators for learning, especially for non-intuitive topics (e.g., Nyquist plots in the complex plane as in the video). While programming can be fun and offers its own learning benefits, there seems to be value in real-time interactivity and exploration (with haptic feedback) provided by non-programming use of handheld calculators.

Not surprisingly, graphical exploration is one of the many reasons for TI graphing calculator popularity in U.S. high schools, as relatively few students actually use or need their programming features. The first HP graphing calculator that de-emphasized programming was the HP-38g. But by then (1995), TI already had two generations of high school graphing calculators on the market (TI-81 and TI-82) and by the time the TI-83 was released (1996), it seems like HP’s battle for the U.S. h.s. educational market was already becoming a lost cause.