The Insane Innovation of TI Calculator Hobbyists
Since we&#x27;re swapping TI calculator stories...<p>In 8th grade Geometry class circa 2007, I had an awesome teacher and loved the subject. I found an extra TI-83+ laying around the house from my brothers. I found a guide online and started building simple programs.<p>A few weeks later, there was a quiz. I asked the teacher if it was permissible to use calculator programs on the quiz. He thought a moment and said it was fine as long as I wrote them myself.<p>So I wrote a very simple program that probably did little more than guide which formula to use in a basic decision tree.<p>It was the hardest quiz of the year, it was just difficult content. My class has 1 A, 1 B, 1 C, and about 23 F&#x27;s. I was the B.<p>After that, graphing calculators weren&#x27;t allowed.<p>Mad respect for Mr. Gass. He had two Apple IIe&#x27;s and had programmed Wheel of Fortune and Jeopard! for review days ahead of tests. He had a couple TV&#x27;s around the classroom so everyone could see the game well, and would turn on Bill Cosby during some working sessions because at the time, he was a well respected man.<p>Mrs. Gass was also a math teacher. Some students who had both teachers made shirts which advertised &quot;I passed Gass twice&quot;