Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Cheap Second Calculators For Tests?
Rich0 writes "I own an HP 48 calculator that I'm quite content with, but soon I'll need to take a certification exam where this calculator will not be welcome. I'm sure this is a common problem for those who own higher-end calculators. Sure, I could just buy a random $15 calculator with a few trig functions, but I was wondering who makes the best moderately-priced calculators for somebody who already has and appreciates a programmable calculator and just needs something simple. Bonus points if the calculator can handle polar vector arithmetic and unit conversions, but it has to be simple enough that virtually any exam would accept its use."
I believe the TI-36X Pro would probably do what you are looking for. It is approved for use on Professional Engineer tests, from what I have read.
Fuck doing math by hand, thats what computers are for!
I mean seriously, lets give everyone a TI-89 and teach them to use it!
Even better, make students learn a legitimate math software, like MathCAD or Maple or something
Why hold ourselves back?
I have a TI-36X Pro for basically the same reasons you outlined. It's quite affordable too, and if you're in the US (I'm not) then it is really easy to find.
Check out the NCEES Calculator Policy.
I had a non-programmable calculator in college but it died and I didn't need a calculator at work. I bought a TI-30Xa for when I took the state professional engineering exam. I am still using this calculator as an engineering professor. Plenty of capability.
Are you certain your HP will not be welcome?
I would suggest the HP-11C. It's available on ebay, and is not $15 cheap, but it is an RPN programmable scientific, of less complexity than the HP-48. I am an RPN fan, so I would go the extra mile to get an RPN calculator.
Cost me $14 brand new, does "all and then some" in terms of my usage scenarios.
step 1: buy a retarded large button lcd calculator with w huge screen and fixed digits (you know, 0-9, ., +, *, /, -)
step 2: replace the buttons with joysticks
step 3: replace the screen with something around 300dpi
step 4: put in an arm processor and bring up linux
step 5: add wireless networking
step 6: swap out the aa batteries with lithium
step 7: develop a chorded keyboard input on the now 9 position keys
step 8: write an emulator to pretend to be the original calculator
step 9: profit
For "polar vector arithmetic and unit conversions," you will want a calculator with the following four keys: "+", "-", "x", "/".
If you're a complete math wuss, you can indulge yourself with square root, sine, and cosine buttons, too.
If you need much more than that for your listed items, then you shouldn't be worrying about a calculator. You should be learning the fucking material so you have the tiniest bit of understanding about what you're doing.
I come across TI-35's and such at thrift stores for a few bucks. You aren't going to uses it again much so just re-donate when you are done with it.
I have a Casio FX991ES, it has a nice display, can do unit conversion, polar arithmetic and is cheap.
It's pretty common in Australia. It has a different model number in every country.
Always used them for 15 years. Lost one long time ago, bought the same again (current model).
sharp el-531w
Fuck doing math by hand, thats what computers are for!
I mean seriously, lets give everyone a TI-89 and teach them to use it!
Even better, make students learn a legitimate math software, like MathCAD or Maple or something
Why hold ourselves back?
Using calculator to aid us resolve math problems faster by itself is not a problem
The problem being ...
... too many young uns (and the not-so-young uns) relying too much on the calculators because they do NOT have _any_ solid math foundation
Those who have solid math foundation, even with using high-end calculators would have the capability to sense if the answer is correct by instinct, for there is always the possibility of inputting the formula wrongly in the first place
Unfortunately, for those without solid math background, they will take _any_ answer appears on the screen, as they neither possess the solid math instinct, nor the knowledge if they have keyed in the right formula or not, in the first place
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
I really liked my software engineering class's exams: given online (but in person in the class room), internet allowed. Bring your laptop (or borrow a provided one)! Use anything other than specifically asking people. That class did not require pencils or paper, or books.
The idea that you need to be able to so something without references does apply to some fields I suppose, but it sure doesn't apply to me. I just need to know the topics well enough to know what to look up when, and to apply my findings. I'm not going to memorize implementations of everything; thats off in my brain's L4 cache: the internet.
I like calculators and picked one of these up for a spare. For a non-graphing, non-programmable, scientific calculator, it is pretty good. Input and output display are independent so you can use natural input and have decimal output. It is easy to use overall. Mine has no persistent state so if it times out and turns off it comes back cleared. These are neat calculators and very inexpensive.
Clickety Click
You gotta go with my #1, the TI-36x Solar. It's ACT and SAT allowed so if anyone has a problem with it, they're making it up.
That's what I used during high school (when all the other kids bought the TI-30 recommended by the school).
And it was still good enough for my maths degree, including some EE courses.
Derivatives, integrals, matrixes, dec->hex->oct->bin conversions, fractions, equation solver(linear, quadratic, cubic), complex numbers, plus all the standard trig functions... Tons of features for a "cheap" scientific calculator. I don't know about certification exams but many classes that banned programmable calculators allowed me to use this and being able to check my derivatives was great. I have the older EL-W516B, which was less than $15 at Target, the newer models still cost less than $20 dollars. It's no TI-89, but it offers a lot of bang for the buck. By the way, it's not RPN like the HP48.
I'm a big fan of the Casio fx-300 series. These days I'm using the fx-300MS, purchased at Staples, etc., for $10. http://www.staples.com/Casio-FX-300MS-Plus-Scientific-Calculator/product_403857 It's fine for scientific and engineering calculations, and although I'd prefer a programmable calculator, those aren't allowed for exams, and therefore aren't widely sold in stores. I have enough of the fx-300s around so there's always one at hand wherever I am, at home, at work, or at the bench. They must also be good enough for my scientific friends as well, because often when I'm in someone else's lab I see one lying around, and think I forgot and left my own there, only to discover, no, it's not mine.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wp34s/ also available from a couple of shops.
More features and capabilities than any non-graphing calculator (and more than most of them too).
And a comprehensive manual: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/wp34s/doc/Manual_wp_34s_3_1.pdf?r=http%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Fwp34s%2Ffiles%2Fdoc%2F&ts=1384657939&use_mirror=softlayer-dal
Truth is often uncomfortable. So what? Think that makes it less true? Think that means it should never be said? Censorship you agree with is acceptable while censorship of what you like to say is tyranny, you hypocrites? Are you so shallow and small-minded as to think that whether you like the sound of a thing is the entire measure of its merit?
Where's the men and women of courage who would mod parent up? Did they tire of the groupthink and leave Slashdot for more fertile ground? Because the parent post is the TRUTH and I for one value that over any phony appearance of inoffensiveness. Try that sometime, if you are not faint of heart. It will enrich your life beyond expectation.
The official list is here.
Made the best calculator.
I used the HP-35s on the Civil PE exam, and it worked great. Has three lines in the stack, the RPN that you know and love on the HP-48, and plenty of build-in equations. No matter what calculator you decide to use, I recommend putting your normal calculator away for a few months prior to the exam and force yourself to use the exam approved one, this will greatly increase your speed with the new calculator.
HP-35s. Not as good as the original HP-35 u some respects, but plenty usable:
http://www.amazon.com/HP-F2215AA-ABA-Scientific-Calculator/dp/B000TDRHG8
If you're coming from an HP48, get an HP35S. All old-timey key feel and RPN goodness you're used to for ~$50, brand new.
For High School and early College degrees, knowing the basics helps later work when working with the more advanced tools. After learning (and being able to know) the basics then move into the more advanced tools. Both are needed. Generally when working on complex systems it's easiest to understand when it can be broken down into clear, demarcated segments. Overall it's complex but each individual segment is made up of basic understandable ideas. That way you don't need to look at everything all at once. This is the way much of networking works using the ISO reference model. Knowing the basics helps when you need to fall back
It's the difference between knowledge and understanding. Our society often fails to value the latter, since it is not immediately useful in the short-term and requires a wise long-view to appreciate. This is very much to our collective detriment.
This.
And with that in mind, I'd suggest a #2 pencil.
If that's too much work, I;d suggest a slide rule.
Someone has to build the calculators.
Use a sliderule
TI36 solar is an excellent choice. All the functionality with very little extra. Look for a model that has the scientific notation button (EE) as the primary function. Some have it this way, while most have it as a second function. If you use this a lot, and I suspect you do, you'll find it much more convenient to not constantly push the 2nd button.
Great warrior...hrmph! Wars not make one great.
If you do RPN then there is
no option to use a TI calculator.
I wish HP would revisit the older HP-21 just add
a modern display perhaps an E-ink display or
pixelqi.com technology display.
To me the most interesting idea would
be a USB link not too different than the
BeagleboneBlack where you can interact
with a web browser (and charge the batteries).
Plug the USB link and the calculator keyboard and
display are fully mirrored. Unplug it to take into
a test. To qualify for a test it would need a serious
reset button that does the right thing.
In this case the calculator could be as full featured
as the HP41cv or the HP-48 and beyond.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
I took two bottom of the line TI-30s ($9.99) and my slide rule (in 1997 or 1998). There's nothing on the FE or PE exam that needs anything other than basic calculations: trig functions, etc. You could quite easily do it with a decent slide rule: it's not like you need 8 digits of accuracy. Either you know which equation to use, and you know what steps are in the solution, or you don't. The "wrong" answers are all the typical screwups (b/a instead of a/b kind of stuff).
However.. since you're used to an HP with RPN.. I'd strongly suggest finding another HP to use. Taking the test is enough of a mental challenge you don't want to be dorking around with your calculator trying to remember how to x^y instead of y^x
what the fuck kind of second rate piece of shit school lets you use calculators on a test?!
I have a pretty nifty abacus that I've tricked out to do cartesian vectors. Polar mod is in the works. Kickstarter for it coming soon.
I use a Casio FX-260 Solar for these sorts of things. It has all your basic scientific functions, plus a nice statistics package. It doesn't have complex numbers or base conversions though. Still, for $10.00, it's not half bad!
I am the penguin that codes in the night.
Get a Casio FX115ES-Plus. Does every-useful-thing a graphing calculator can with a $16 price tag.
I have 2 Casio FX-115ESPlus calcs, and I use them all the time. One at my desk, one in my toolbox. I think I paid $12.99 for them, and they are available everywhere.
I like RPN, but the Casio textbook entry input works very well, and comes in handy when I have more important things on my mind.
www.casio.com/products/Calculators_%26_Dictionaries/Fraction_%26_Scientific/FX-115ESPLUS/
They also rank very highly for accuracy.
http://www.rskey.org/~mwsebastian/miscprj/forensics.htm
voidware.com/calcs/torturetest.htm
I would be astounded to find, if they forbid certain models/features, that they do not have a whitelist of allowed models. THAT's where you should start your product research, not here, not with a vague, un-actionable question.
And Oh, By The Way, to echo another posters tongue in cheek remark, if you are in a scientific field, you really should know how to use a sliderule, even in these days. There ain't no batteries on a slide rule to run out, or be unavailable, nor are you ever likely to ever take a test where the use of one is forbidden.
-Red
I have heard of a thing, they call it a mind. Sure, they are a dime a dozen, and normally do not perform anything but the most mundane tasks. However, there are upgrade processes that one can perform on them that will allow even the most common mind to do amazing things!
It was good enough to get Jim Lovell back from the moon, dammit.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Get a triumph adler. If it's still not welcomed, then try a slide rule.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Given that you like your 48, you might want to look at the details of the allowed calculator lists for the specific tests you have in mind and see which other HP RPN calculators would fit the bill.
The 35s is allowed on a number of tests where fancier calculators aren't, including the NCEES. Not the cheapest, but capable. Its support for polar complex numbers covers what you seem to be asking for.
It's the successor to the 33s, which had an odd keyboard but was otherwise ok, which in turn was the successor to the 32S/32SII. Those are still quite capable calculators if you find one around. Enough people considered the 42S to be the best calculator ever made that it goes for absurd prices on ebay.
While they in theory test your problem solving and experience in a field, in fact they tend to be filled with memorization of minutia and lots of "gotcha" questions. Hence a calculator that can store notes in memory isn't allowed. Some don't allow calculators period because the ability to do base-2 math in your head is somehow important by their logic.
What it comes down to is that writing a good skills test is hard, and doing a computerized one is nearly impossible. So instead they make it hard through other means, namely memorization and trick questions.
A Sharp EL-546 (x) where (x) is the current version. The version I'm staring at is "W". Only very slightly programmable, (Ok, you can store quite a few formulas with variables that can be A,B,C,D,E,F,X,Y,M). All of your (hyperbolic)(arc)sine/cosine/tangent, exponent/log/root functions, polar to rectangular conversions, permutations, combinations, statistics, decimal/hexidecimal/binary/octal/pental conversions, plus 44 metric conversions, and 52 physical constants. It uses direct algebraic input (enter functions as you see them, not as some calculators want them), had dual power (dead batteries in the exam won't be a problem), its pretty rugged, and costs about $15. I used something like it for both Electronics Engineering and Computer Science.
I used the HP-35s on both the FE and PE electrical exams, and also by chance on the American ham radio license tests. There are some legitimate gripes about it out there, but it's excellent for quickly getting answers on complex math (complex as in sqrt(-1)) problems, and there is a 2x2 and 3x3 equation solver built in. dB calculations are also pretty quick, just due to the speed of RPN. That covers about 99% of the difficult calculations you'd be likely to see on the PE electrical exam, for example.
For the PE, by the time you account for application fees and money for study materials, a second HP-35s as a backup was a no-brainer.
Good luck!
Sounds like you want RPN. The HP-35s is still sold. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TDRHG8
Under 10$ in Radio Shack. Deg/Rad/Grad. statistics. nPr and nCr. R -> P and P->R, sin, cos, tan, arcsin, arccos, arctan, sinh, cosh, tanh, arctsinh, arccosh, arctanh, 18 levels of parenthesis, log, ln, exp, 10^(x), 1/x, sqrt, x^2, x^y, x^(1/y). All solar no batteries. Good softkeys. M+, M-, Sto/ MR. Don't know the model num because it is at work, and I am home.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
$1 scientific calculators with trig functionality. Tada.
...all of the requested features:
It's the Sharp ELW516XBSL 12-Digit 4-Line 535-function Scientific Calculator
"Sharp - Scientific - Desktop - Solar Powered"
"Performs 535 statistical, trigonometric and other functions. WriteView technology displays formulas as written in textbooks. DAL (Direct Algebraic Logic) makes it easy to enter formulas into the calculator. Multi-line playback and editing function. Nine independent memories and four programmable keys. Ability to solve three simultaneous equations, two variable statistic functions and fraction calculations. Permitted for use on AP Chemistry, AP Physics, PSAT/NMSQT, SAT I, SAT II, Math IC & Math IIC tests."
Also See: https://www.mylambton.ca/Math_Physics/Sharp_EL-W516_WriteView/
Seems to be the accepted standard for just about any tests. If it's allowable, then you shouldn't have any problems with your HP48 being accepted.
Mod me up/Mod me down: I wont frown as I've no crown
Real Calc Plus on Android.
Get your free Dropbox account with 2 GB Free storage!
I had a basic Casio (until my daughter made off with it) that sat on my desk beside my TI-89. For quick calculations I much preferred the Casio with its large clear numbers and nicer buttons. Plus it did various higher mathematical things fairly well. The key though is to read the manual as doing somethings such as working with polynomials was just weird.
I think that I will go buy another as I do miss it.
Get an HP 28S. It's the same processor and software as the HP 48S, just with a slower CPU, less memory, and a smaller display. I've never been denied my 28S in an exam, and if you're ever questioned just point to where it's stamped (C) 1986 HEWLETT-PACKARD.
demonstrates the bankruptcy of contemporary education.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
it might be old then you.
and give it a command-line / greenscreen interface. Make it run in a shell on your android phone. And add an output "Copyright Rich0 1989" to the "- - version" option...
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
I've made a sad realization that my TI-89 Titanium will become totally useless after I graduate. 99% of the time I'll be around a desktop computer where I'll be able to use Matlab, which is far superior to the TI-89, and another 0.99% of the time I'll definitely have access to my tablet which has Octave installed on it, and the remaining 0.01% of the time I wouldn't be carrying my TI-89 around with me anyway.
It's not really an answer to the Ask Slashdot question, but I don't see why one would want to use a non-approved programmed calculator.
The point of a calculator during exams is that you have a single tool with well defined capabilities, so as not to get an unfair advantage above students using a different brand of tool. For actual (professional) engineering calculations you will use a computer with decent programming tools (matlab, python, C/C++, or whatever your favorite is). In my 22 years of university (physics), scientific research, and industrial engineering, I have never felt the need for a fancy calculator. Nowadays I have RealCalc (Android app, clone of the decades-old Casio FX-8x line of non-programmable calculators) if I need a quick calculation during a meeting and a computer (combined with pen and paper) for everything else.
If your exams require that you have a graphing calculator, you'll probably need one. But I've never seen them used around me (R&D department counting a few thousand mechanical engineers).
Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
I'm using the HP41CX iphone app. It's great! http://alsoftiphone.com/i41CXplus/
The Physics Dept at Exeter Univ. (UK) publishes lists of simple scientific calculators that students can (and can't) use in exams:
http://newton.ex.ac.uk/handbook/PHY/Calculators.html
Their criteria are sufficiently similar to your requirements that it might be useful for ruling candidates in/out.
Post and Pocket made excellent calculators when I was in college. Not sure whether they still do. They were called slide rules and were universally welcome in tests. Try it, you'll like it.
bah I modrated redundant.
In college (15 years ago), my scientific calculator was a Sharp EL-509 (now succeeded with the EL531; $10 from Amazon) Unlike most scientific calculators, the '509 did order of operations automatically so you didn't have to convert your input into "calculator order" ahead of time. Really, it gave me the most-needed features of a graphing calculator, but in a form-factor that professors always let me use.
For my EE classes, the real benefit was not having to convert between vector and polar coordinates prior to problem input. I could input my problem in whatever coordinate form I had it in without having to go through tedious trig operations, which greatly sped up solving problems during exams (or homework, for that matter). With exams heavy on those conversions, I always finished the tests first.
Steampunk away. Preferably clockwork. Stop being lazy. Extra points for steam, solar, urine-powered or digestion-powered. "Nervous-foot-tapping" powered is an obviously disregarded source of energy.
Dynamic feedback, of course. With nitinol, constantan (or precision resistances) and diferential gears (eccentric, and maybe even elliptical ones). Don't forget the tiny bell. Maybe a little whistle, too. In the deluxe model. :) A chicken or kazoo sound for errors?
There's also that German small potlike mechanical calculator engineers used to admire. What was their name, again?
Just being a prepper is already risqué.
If you are used to RPN, stick with RPN. That's the mot important advice I can give you
For test, i always used the HP 32s or the good old HP 11c
Someting like the 32s is close to your 48, so you will be using it intuitively and fast
Learn to use your brain and you won't have to second guess what is and is not allowed.
Since you're question is vague and worthless, try it out some time.
I would just argue who ever is proctoring the test, let them see your calculator, let them clear it's memory and then let you use your calculator. On an interesting side note I wonder if it would be possible to make a normal "small" form factor calculator with a programming feature but that looks completely Innocent.
I have one HP 35s and it is even more useful than the HP 50G
The first will be the most expensive and the second will cost much less.
Those were good enough for me and my peers when I was taking exams (in fact, that's all we were allowed to use). Now get off my lawn!
(usually young life)???
At the PE exam, the proctors are usually retired PEs and the like. They'd recognize an older calculator in a second (Oh, yeah, that's the one that I got to replace my HP-45.. Now the 45 was great, because it replaced my Kurta, and it was a lot quieter than the Marchand in the office)
Pros: No batteries, no TEMPEST emissions, no NSA snooping...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
PE exam is open book (people drag entire pallets full into the exam, including 2 drawer file cabinets). Fundamentals of Engineering exam is "open NCEES" book, which is about 50-60 pages of formulas, tables, etc.
I was quite impressed with the quality of the PE and FE exams. They did NOT rely on trick questions. What they did require was solutions that required at least 2 steps in the process. And you had to really know what the appropriate analysis /solution approach was, because there isn't enough time to "derive from first principles". Either you know how to use a Moody diagram for pipes, or you don't, and since that's only a piece of the puzzle, if you don't you're screwed. (Typical problem: The penstock is cast iron and 1 meter in diameter. The reservoir surface is at an altitude of 1000 meters, while the inlet to the penstock is 40 meters below the water surface. The power house is 1 km away at an altitude of 921 meters. Using the chart in Figure n, giving generator performance vs flow and head, what is the expected electrical power output?)
You get about 2 minutes per problem on average.
The hard part is that they are insane on function placement, but you can not beat Casio for a good high end calculator for cheap.
I just wish someone would re make the HP programmers calculator. I need the Binary/hex/octal stuff more than anything else and all the calculators today just slap it on as a last minute extra buried in the settings.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Argue? Are you kidding? Have you never taken a licensing or other high stakes exam? They have a list of approved model numbers, and a freaking huge table with a pile of calculators that have been confiscated. There's no arguing.
Here on Slashdot a few months/years ago there was a whole discussion about how you can write software for the programmable TIs that emulates the "memory clear" function, and with a clever combination of keypresses, the memory comes back.
There's no negotiating at these tests. There's 1000 of you lined up to get in at 6AM, and there's no time for calculator negotiation. They check your bags and boxes, and check your calculator against the published "approved list". If it matches, you get to take it. If it doesn't it goes on the "confiscated" table.
Everyone wears one these days.
HP-32S or HP-32Sii
Should be allowed into any certification exam. Made until the early 2000's, so it should be relatively cheap and readily available. Will last the rest of your life if you don't do something stupid.
Engineering cred. I bought mine used on ebay a couple of decades ago and it's still selling for as much or more than what I paid for it.
To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
... just in case the exam facility is hit with an EMP, take your slide rule along.
My ti 89 was not allowed on the mechanical engineering PE exam, so I used the Casio. It's a pretty awesome little machine. It can store a lot of variables, and solve equations numerically (which is useful because it means you don't have to rearrange medium sized equations before solving them).
To those who are complaining about organizations not allowing programmable calculators: the main reason why the ncees has this requirement is to prevent people from exfiltrating portions of the exam.
Because sometimes you have to do the math right now and get it right. If you have 30 minutes (or an hour, or a day - the problem will take longer to solve on a computer than you have to go back to the office and run your analysis) to make a life or death decision, I pray you have the ability to do math in your head, and do it right.
You laugh, but some of us make these calls as part of our career. We have to know the math, the formulas, and how entire systems interact. When we get it wrong, people die. We're professional engineers.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
casio calculator fx 85wa
-Separate result and equation displays
-does polar conversion
-converts base 10 to whatever to what hex, binary etc.
Used through engineering school and work.
-regards, a recent PEng
This is how I got through an economics course for engineers so easily. I programmed present value, future value, and annual payment equations into my TI-85. When I was doing the homework and taking exams, all I had to do was enter the variables and hit the button. When I took the PE exam, I used a TI-30-II.
At 11$, it should fit the bill; made for scientists and engineers, should pass its own exams with 240 functions. The manual is here: http://h20628.www2.hp.com/km-ext/kmcsdirect/emr_na-c03519340-1.pdf Why recommend it? I own it and it does the job, if the problem is really for a calculator :)
And Timmy strikes again by not posting an Ask Slashdot story to the Ask Slashdot section. Hey Timmy! They put those sections there and allow readers to filter by section for a reason. Quit being a fucking tool and post the stories properly. In other words, do your job.
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
Do people still use calculators?
no, I don't have a sig
The Sharp El-406 series has been around for 20+ years. Trig, other bases, and a backspace. Current model is probably EL-406C, but I don't remember.
For me — reliable and familiar.
For you — familiar to standardized test proctors.
I had a TI-36 back in college ... once time, the classroom was so dark for the test (I think the teacher had something on the overhead) ... that the calculator wouldn't turn on. It made having a solar calculator kinda lame.
Luckily, the power needed to keep it on was less than the power to turn it on initially, so I was able to shine the flashlight on it once, and it stayed on for the rest of the test. But it was still pretty annoying.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
A TI-36x Pro is the calculator you are looking for. It has unit conversions, vector addition, and all the usual stuff. I've had mine for a couple years and it's never failed me. It has a four line display and a table button which is incredibly useful.
Pics or It Didn't Happen
Hp 42. It is is a two line rpn calculator with most of the funtionality of the 48.
I recently took the FE exam and this was the best of all allowed calculators. It made some of the problems substantially faster to solve.
http://www.casio-usa.com/products/Calculators_%26_Dictionaries/Fraction_%26_Scientific/FX-115ESPLUS/
Interpolation, Polar-Rect, symbolic integration and differentiation, Root finding, and the option of symbolic interface.
It is not bad for $20 US at any Walmart.