Texas Instruments TI-83 - Plus Graphing Calculator Manuale utente

Chapter 1

Coping with the Basics

In This Chapter

䊳Turning the calculator on and off

䊳Using the keyboard

䊳Using the menus

䊳Setting the mode of the calculator

䊳Using the Catalog

The TI-83 and TI-84 graphing calculators are loaded with

many useful features. With them, you can construct and

investigate geometric figures. You can graph and investigate

functions, parametric equations, polar equations, and

sequences. You can use them to analyze statistical data and to

manipulate matrices. You can even use them to calculate

mortgage payments.

But if you’ve never used a graphing calculator before, you

may at first find it a bit intimidating. After all, it contains

about two dozen menus, many of which contain three or four

submenus. But it’s really not that hard to get used to using the

calculator. After you get familiar with what the calculator is

capable of doing, finding the menu that houses the command

you need is quite easy. And you have this book to help you

along the way.

When to Change the Batteries

The convenience of battery power has a traditional downside:

What if the batteries run out of juice at a crucial moment, say

during a final exam? Fortunately, the calculator gives you some

leeway. When your batteries are low, the calculator displays a

04_05610X ch01.qxp 4/26/06 6:07 PM Page 5

COPYRIGHTEDMATERIAL

TI-83/84 Plus Graphing Calculators For Dummies, Portable Edition

“Your batteries are low” warning message. After you see this

message for the first time, the calculator should, according to

the manufacturer, continue to function just fine for at least one

week. There is one exception: If you attempt to download an

application when the batteries are low, the calculator displays

a “Batteries are low — Change is required” warning message

and refuses to download the application until after you’ve

changed the batteries.

Because you’ve likely put batteries into countless toys, you

should have no trouble opening the cover on the back of the

calculator and popping in four AAA batteries. Above the AAA

battery chamber is a panel that opens to the compartment

containing the backup battery. The type of battery housed in

this compartment is indicated on the lid of the panel. The

manufacturer recommends that you replace this battery

every three or four years. So mark your calendar!

Turning the Calculator On and Off

Press …to turn the calculator on. To turn the calculator off,

press y, and then press …. These keys are in the left column

of the keyboard. The …key is at the bottom of the column,

and the ykey is the second key from the top of this column.

To prolong the life of the batteries, the calculator automati-

cally turns itself off after five minutes of inactivity. But don’t

worry — when you press …, all your work will appear on

the calculator just as you left it before the calculator turned

itself off.

In some types of light, the screen can be hard to see. To

increase the contrast, press and release yand then hold

down }until you have the desired contrast. To decrease the

contrast, press yand hold Ü.

Using the Keyboard

The row of keys under the calculator screen contains the keys

you use when graphing. The next three rows, for the most

part, contain editing keys, menu keys, and arrow keys. The

arrow keys (~|}Ü) control the movement of the cursor.

04_05610X ch01.qxp 4/26/06 6:07 PM Page 6

The remaining rows contain, among other things, the keys you

typically find on a scientific calculator.

Keys on the calculator are never pressed simultaneously. In

this book, an instruction such as y… indicates that you

should first press yand then press ….

Accessing the functions

in blue and yellow

Above and to the left of most keys is a secondary key func-

tion. These functions are yellow on the TI-83 Plus calculator

and blue on the TI-84. To access that function, first press y

and then press the key. For example, πis above the õkey, so

to use πin an expression, press yand then press õ.

Because hunting for the function can be tedious, in this book I

use only the actual keystrokes. For example, I will make state-

ments like, “πis entered into the calculator by pressing

yõ.” Most other books would state, “πis entered into the

calculator by pressing y[π].”

When the ykey is active and the calculator is waiting for

you to press the next key, the blinking $cursor symbol is

replaced with the nsymbol.

Using the Ékey

to write words

Above and to the right of most keys is a letter written in

green. To access these letters, first press Éand then

press the key. For example, because the letter O is in green

above the ¨key, to enter this letter, press Éand then

press ¨.

Because hunting for letters on the calculator can be tedious, I

tell you the exact keystrokes needed to create them. For exam-

ple, if I want you to enter the letter O, I say, “Press É¨ to

enter the letter O.” Most other books would say “Press É

[O]” and leave it up to you to figure out where that letter is on

the calculator.

Chapter 1: Coping with the Basics 7

04_05610X ch01.qxp 4/26/06 6:07 PM Page 7

You must press Ébefore entering each letter. However,

if you want to enter many letters, first press yÉ to

lock the calculator in Alpha mode. Then all you have to do is

press the keys for the various letters. When you’re finished,

press Éto take the calculator out of Alpha mode. For

example, to enter the word TEST into the calculator, press

yÉWòµW and then press Éto tell the calcula-

tor that you’re no longer entering letters.

When the calculator is in Alpha mode, the blinking $cursor

symbol is replaced with the ÿsymbol. This symbol indicates

that the next key you press will insert the green letter above

that key. To take the calculator out of Alpha mode, press

É.

Using the Õkey

The Õkey is used to evaluate expressions and to execute

commands. After you have, for example, entered an arithmetic

expression (such as 5 + 4), press Õto evaluate that expres-

sion. In this context, the Õkey functions as the equal sign.

Entering arithmetic expressions is explained in Chapter 2.

TI-83/84 Plus Graphing Calculators For Dummies, Portable Edition

Keys to remember

The following keystrokes are

invaluable:

⻬yz: This is the equivalent of

the Escape key on a computer. It

gets you out of whatever you’re

doing (or have finished doing) and

returns you to the Home screen.

The Home screen is where the

action takes place. This is where

you execute commands and eval-

uate expressions.

⻬Õ:This key is used to exe-

cute commands and to evaluate

expressions. When evaluating

expressions, it’s the equivalent of

the equal sign.

⻬ë: This is the “erase” key. If

you’re entering something into the

calculator and change your mind,

press this key. If you want to erase

the contents of the Home screen,

repeatedly press this key until the

Home screen is blank.

04_05610X ch01.qxp 4/26/06 6:07 PM Page 8

Using the Ñkey

Ñis the key you use to enter the variable in the definition

of a function, a parametric equation, a polar equation, or a

sequence. In Function mode, this key produces the variable X. In

Parametric mode it produces the variable T; and in Polar and

Sequence modes it produces the variables θand n, respectively.

Setting the mode is explained later in this chapter.

Using the arrow keys

The arrow keys (~, |, }, and Ü) control the movement of

the cursor. These keys are in a circular pattern in the upper-

right corner of the keyboard. As expected, ~moves the

cursor to the right, |moves it to the left, and so on. When I

want you to use the arrow keys — but not in any specific

order — I refer to them all together, as in “Use ~|}Ü to

place the cursor on the entry.”

What Is the Home Screen?

The Home screen is the screen that appears on the calculator

when you first turn it on. This is the screen where most of the

action takes place as you use the calculator — it’s where you

evaluate expressions and execute commands. This is also the

screen you usually return to after you’ve completed a task

such as entering a matrix in the Matrix editor or entering data

in the Stat List editor.

Press yz to return to the Home screen from any other

screen. This combination of keystrokes, yz, is the equiv-

alent of the Escape key on a computer. It always takes you

back to the Home screen.

If you want to clear the contents of the Home screen, repeat-

edly press ëuntil the Home screen is blank.

The Busy Indicator

If you see a moving vertical line in the upper-right corner of

the screen, this indicates that the calculator is busy graphing

a function, evaluating an expression, or executing a command.

Chapter 1: Coping with the Basics 9

04_05610X ch01.qxp 4/26/06 6:07 PM Page 9

If it’s taking too long for the calculator to graph a function,

evaluate an expression, or execute a command, and you want

to abort the process, press …. If you’re then confronted with

a menu that asks you to select either Quit or Goto, select Quit

to abort the process.

Editing Entries

The calculator offers four ways to edit an entry:

⻬Deleting the entire entry:

Use ~|}Ü to place the cursor anywhere in the entry

and then press ëto delete the entry.

⻬Erasing part of an entry:

To erase a single character, use ~|}Ü to place the

cursor on the character you want to delete and then

press {to delete that character.

⻬Inserting characters:

Because “typing over” is the default mode, to insert char-

acters you must first press y{ to enter Insert mode.

When you insert characters, the inserted characters are

placed to the left of the cursor. For example, if you want

to insert CD between B and E in the word ABEF, you

would place the cursor on E to make the insertion.

To insert characters, use ~|}Ü to place the cursor at

the location of the desired insertion, press y{, and

then key in the characters you want to insert. When

you’re finished inserting characters, press one of the

arrow keys to take the calculator out of Insert mode.

⻬Keying over existing characters:

“Type over” is the default mode of the calculator. So if

you want to overtype existing characters, just use

~|}Ü to put the cursor where you want to start, and

then use the keyboard to enter new characters.

On the Home screen, the calculator doesn’t allow you to

directly edit an already-evaluated expression or an already-

executed command. But you can recall that expression or

command if it was the last entry you made in the calculator —

and when it’s recalled, you can edit it. To recall the last

TI-83/84 Plus Graphing Calculators For Dummies, Portable Edition

04_05610X ch01.qxp 4/26/06 6:07 PM Page 10

expression or command, press yÕ. This makes the cal-

culator paste a copy of the desired expression or command

on the Home screen so you can edit it.

Using Menus

Most functions and commands you use are found in the

menus housed in the calculator — and just about every chap-

ter in this book refers to them. This section is designed to

give you an overview of how to find and select menu items.

Accessing a menu

Each menu has its own key or key combination. For example,

to access the Math menu, press ç; to access the Test

menu, press yç. An example of a menu appears in the

first picture in Figure 1-1. This is a picture of the Math menu.

Some menus, such as the Math menu, contain submenus. This

is also illustrated in the first picture in Figure 1-1. This picture

shows that the submenus in the Math menu are MATH, NUM,

CPX, and PRB (Math, Number, Complex, and Probability).

Repeatedly press ~to view the items on the other submenus;

repeatedly press |to return to the Math MATH submenu. This

is illustrated in the second and third pictures in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1: Submenus of the Math menu.

Scrolling a menu

After the number 7 in the first two pictures in Figure 1-1, a

down arrow indicates that more items are available in the menu

than appear on-screen. There’s no down arrow after the 7 in the

third picture in Figure 1-1 because that menu has exactly seven

items.

Math MATH menu Math NUM menu Math PRB menu

Chapter 1: Coping with the Basics 11

04_05610X ch01.qxp 4/26/06 6:07 PM Page 11

To see menu items that don’t appear on-screen, repeatedly

press Ü. To get quickly to the bottom of a menu from the top

of the menu, press }. Similarly, to quickly get from the

bottom to the top, press Ü.

Selecting menu items

To select a menu item from a menu, key in the number (or

letter) of the item or use Üto highlight the number (or letter)

of the item and then press Õ.

Some menus, such as the Mode menu that is pictured in

Figure 1-2, require that you select an item from a list of items

by highlighting that item. The list of items usually appears in a

single row and the calculator requires that one item in each

row be highlighted. To highlight an item, use ~|}Ü to place

the cursor on the item and then press Õto highlight the

item. The selections on the Mode menu are described in the

next section.

Setting the Mode

The Mode menu, which is accessed by pressing z, is the

most important menu on the calculator; it tells the calculator

how you want numbers and graphs to be displayed. The Mode

menu is pictured in Figure 1-2.

Figure 1-2: The Mode and Clock menus.

One item in each row of this menu must be selected. Here are

your choices:

⻬Normal, Sci, or Eng:

This setting controls how numbers are displayed on the

calculator. In Normal mode, the calculator displays

Mode menu Clock menu

TI-83/84 Plus Graphing Calculators For Dummies, Portable Edition

04_05610X ch01.qxp 4/26/06 6:07 PM Page 12

numbers in the usual numeric fashion that you used in

elementary school — provided it can display it using no

more than ten digits. If the number requires more than

ten digits, the calculator displays it using scientific

notation.

In Scientific (Sci) mode, numbers are displayed using sci-

entific notation; and in Engineering (Eng) mode, numbers

are displayed in engineering notation. These three modes

are illustrated in Figure 1-3. In this figure, the first answer

is displayed in normal notation, the second in scientific

notation, and the third in engineering notation.

In scientific and engineering notation, the calculator uses

Ento denote multiplication by 10n.

Figure 1-3: Normal, scientific, and engineering notations.

⻬Float 0123456789:

Select Float if you want the calculator to display as many

digits as possible. Select 0if you want all numbers rounded

to an integer. If you’re dealing with money, select 2so

that all numbers will be rounded to two decimal places.

Selecting 5rounds all numbers to five decimal places, and,

well, you get the idea.

⻬Radian or Degree:

If you select Radian, all angles entered in the calculator

are interpreted as being in radian measure; all angular

answers given by the calculator will also be in radian

measure. Similarly, if you select Degree, any angle you

enter must be in degree measure, and any angular

answer given by the calculator is also in degree measure.

⻬Func, Par, Pol, or Seq:

This setting tells the calculator what type of functions you

plan to graph. Select Func to graph plain old vanilla func-

tions, y= f(x). Select Par to graph parametric equations;

Pol to graph polar equations; and Seq to graph sequences.

(Sequences are also called iterative equations.)

Engineering

Scientific

Normal

Chapter 1: Coping with the Basics 13

04_05610X ch01.qxp 4/26/06 6:07 PM Page 13

⻬Connected or Dot:

In Dot mode, the calculator produces a graph by plotting

only the points it calculates. In Connected mode, the cal-

culator joins consecutively plotted points with a line.

My recommendation is to select the Connected mode

because each of the graphing options (Func, Par, Pol,

and Seq) allows you to select a graphing style, one of

which is the dot style.

⻬Sequential or Simul:

In Sequential mode, the calculator completes the graph

of one function before it graphs the next function. In

Simultaneous (Simul) mode, the calculator graphs all

functions at the same time. It does so by plotting the

values of all functions for one value of the independent

variable, and then plotting the values of all functions for

the next value of the independent variable.

Simul mode is useful if you want to see whether two

functions intersect at the same value of the independent

variable. You have to watch the functions as they are

graphed in order to see if this happens.

⻬Real, a + bi, or re^θi:

If you’re dealing with only real numbers, select the Real

mode. If you’re dealing with complex numbers, select a +

biif you want the complex numbers displayed in rectan-

gular form. If you want complex numbers displayed in

polar form, select the re^θimode.

⻬Full, Horiz, or G-T:

The Full screen mode displays the screen as you see it

when you turn the calculator on. The other screen modes

are split-screen modes. The Horiz mode is for when you

want to display a graph and the Y= editor or the Home

screen at the same time. Use the G-T mode when you want

to display a graph and a table at the same time. (The split-

screen modes are explained in detail in Chapters 8 and 9.)

⻬Set Clock:

This is where you set the clock on the calculator. To do

this, use the arrow keys to place the cursor on the SET

CLOCK option and press Õ. You see the second pic-

ture in Figure 1-2. You use the arrow keys to move from

item to item. To select items in the first, fifth, and eighth

rows, place the cursor on the desired item and press

TI-83/84 Plus Graphing Calculators For Dummies, Portable Edition

04_05610X ch01.qxp 4/26/06 6:07 PM Page 14

Altri manuali per TI-83 - Plus Graphing Calculator

Questo manuale è adatto per i seguenti modelli

Indice

Altri manuali Texas Instruments Calcolatrice

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-73 Explorer Manuale utente

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-84 Plus Silver Edition Manuale utente

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-30X - IIS Scientific Calculator Manuale utente

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Tl-84 Plus CE Manuale utente

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Titanium TI-89 Manuale utente

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-68 Manuale

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-81 Manuale

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Voyage 200 Manuale

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-30XS Multiview Manuale utente

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-73 Explorer Guida rapida

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-40 College II Manuale utente

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-83-Plus Manuale operativo

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-92 Manuale utente

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-84 - Plus - Edition Graphing Calculator Manuale

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments -84 Plus Manuale

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Titanium TI-89 Istruzioni per il montaggio

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Titanium TI-89 Manuale utente

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments E-5032 Manuale utente

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-5660 Manuale

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI30XA - Scientific Calculator Manuale utente

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-1795 Manuale utente

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Voyage 200 Manuale utente

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-Nspire CX Manuale utente

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-Nspire Guida rapida

Manuali Calcolatrice popolari di altre marche

HP 35s Manuale

Casio

Casio CFX-9970G Manuale utente

LEXIBOOK

LEXIBOOK EL350 Manuale utente

HP HP-97 Manuale utente

Citizen

Citizen SDC-414N Manuale utente

Casio

Casio fx-3800P Manuale utente

Canon

Canon P26-DHIII Manuale utente

Citizen

Citizen 520DPA Manuale utente

Sharp

Sharp EL-9900 Manuale utente

Casio

Casio FX-9860GII - SOFTWARE VERSION 2-00 Manuale utente

Casio

Casio MS-7UC Manuale utente

Sharp

Sharp WriteView EL-W506 Manuale tecnico

Casio

Casio FC-200 Manuale utente

Casio

Casio fx-CG50 Manuale utente

HP HP-67 Guida utente

Royal

Royal CBC2000 Manuale utente

Heathkit

Heathkit IC-2009 Manuale utente

Universal

Universal UNV-15907 Manuale utente