I carry a $20 Casio that's light and small enough to go unnoticed in my bag, while providing better tactile response than a smartphone calculator. For anything more substantial I break out MATLAB.
The problem with graphing calculators is that they're autistic. With MATLAB it's trivial to load a data file, run some calculations, generate plots, and export to PDF for use in a document. Graphing calculators are fine for working through problem sets in high school, but outside school they fall in an awkward gap between being too big and heavy to carry around and too limited for real work.
The problem with graphing calculators is that they're autistic. With MATLAB it's trivial to load a data file, run some calculations, generate plots, and export to PDF for use in a document. Graphing calculators are fine for working through problem sets in high school, but outside school they fall in an awkward gap between being too big and heavy to carry around and too limited for real work.