Tutoring high school math, you don’t always see financial calculators; more often, you might see the TI-83 grapher.  The tutor recalls the TI BA-35’s use in accounting courses….

The TI BA-35 is a classic among financial calculators.  It’s got that minimal design Texas Instruments so excels with when they want to.  Frankly, the key sequences are sometimes so concise, it’s surprising. The way you calculate the equivalent annual rate (see my previous post for clarification) on the TI BA-35 might be an example.

Let’s take the premise of my previous post: 3% interest, compounded monthly. Of course, it’s called 3%; that’s the nominal rate. Let’s find the equivalent annual rate, using the TI BA-35:

step 1: Make sure you’re in FIN mode. It should say FIN at the bottom of the screen. If it doesn’t, press 2nd N.

step 2: Enter 12 2nd PV 3 = .

step 3: The screen should say 3.0415952: for 3% compounded monthly, the equivalent annual rate is 3.0415952%.

Notice this answer agrees, to six decimal places, with the one from my previous post.

The BA-35 echoes the efficiency of calculators back in the 80s. They were sometimes less intuitive than what you might find today; the user had to learn how the calculator expected the inputs.

I’ll be talking more about the TI BA-35 in future posts:)

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.