It's

The first electronic handheld calculator, invented by Jack S. Kilby, Jerry D. Merryman and James Van Tassel.

hard to conceive of high school math and science students learning statistics, physics or trigonometry without a graphing calculator. It's now one of the most comprehensive education technologies – essentially a miniature computer – available in the marketplace today.

When TI celebrated the 40-year anniversary of the invention of its handheld calculator in 2007, educators, media reports and one of the calculator's inventors reflected on how the handheld marvel had shaped math education for decades.

A microchip showcase

Datamath calculator, 1972

In the mid-1960s, a basic calculator that could add, subtract, divide and multiply weighed 60 pounds, resembled a typewriter and cost the equivalent of $30,000 in today's dollars. 

Identifying an opportunity, three TI engineers set out to develop a handheld device in 1965. It was intended originally to showcase the potential of microchips, invented by calculator cocreator Jack Kilby a few years earlier.

Designing

Little Professor™, 1976

the prototype for a handheld electronic version – from keypad to processor to output printer - took 18 months, three times longer than expected. But when TI registered the product with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1967, it was a revolutionary step forward in our mastery over numbers and set the stage for new ways of learning math and science.

The $150 Pocketronic hit the market in April 1971. By the end of the following year, five million had been sold.

Incalculable impact

TI's first graphing calculator, the TI-81, 1990

Over the years, TI has worked with educators to develop more sophisticated graphing calculators. They work to help students visualize math concepts and see the relationships between different math forms – symbols, tables, graphs, and formulas – thereby improving their conceptual understanding of math.

While

TI graphing calculators, shown with the TI-Navigator, make it possible for teachers to track students' progress in the classroom in real time.

the matter remains debated in education circles, most math teachers believe calculators aid learning. Much like word processors help students write and rewrite essays, calculators allow students to experiment with math, explore concepts more deeply and get to higher levels of math easier.

That, according to calculator coinventor Jerry Merryman, has expanded students' reach and grasp of mathematics.

"We can jump past the grunt work and get to more sophisticated levels of analysis," James Rubillo, executive director of the National Council of Teachers and Mathematics told the Washington Post in 2007.

Computer-like graphing calculators

Today, TI sells about three to four million graphing calculators each year. In 2007, after consulting with teachers and other experts about how people learn math, TI introduced a reimagined graphing calculator.

TI-Nspire, 2007

"The experts told us that deeper understanding comes when students can visually make connections between a math formula and its graph, spreadsheet of data, or geometric shape," said Melendy Lovett, a senior vice president at TI and president of TI's Education Technology business. "So we designed a math learning handheld that integrates multiple applications and allows students to explore mathematical relationships."

Multiple ways of viewing the same problem appear on the screens of the newest graphing calculator product – the TI-Nspire^® family. By showing math problems in different ways, these graphing calculators help students investigate and understand math concepts. That computing power is a quantum leap from the simple addition and subtraction machines of 40 years ago. 

At the product's introduction in 2007, teachers seemed, well, inspired.

"It has helped me think differently about how I teach my students," said math instructor Eric Butterbaugh of Harlem, New York. "The TI-Nspire calculator opens up a whole new world of possibilities."