Using the graphing calculator (TI-83)

Since I know how much of a pain these calculators are - and yes they are confusing to - I feel that posting a short little tutorial on some of the basics will help.

For starters, there are your basic functions you should all know from grade 10 pre cal using a scientific calculator, so I'm not going to mess with those. Those use the second function key which is the big yellow button on the top left hand side. There's also the addition of the Alpha key which gives you more options. And yes there are letters involved so you can type messages but I haven't figured out the space key - not that this is relavent to using it in class I was just having fun at the time and it is slight amusement if you're REALLY bored.

On a side note, if you go into an application you dont want and you have NO clue how to get out, just go [2nd] and [mode] to quit.

Few other keys to keep in mind: Clear key does as it says, it clears the screen. If you have multiple lines of problems you were solving, pressing it once clears the current line, pressing it twice or again clears the entire thing. If you make a mistake and dont want to clear the entire thing you can use the arrow buttons to move the flashing cursor over until its over the item you don't want, and pressing delete will get rid of that specific spot. If you missed something, put the cursor over where you want it to go, press [2nd] then the [del] key (if you look at it, "ins" is in yellow on top of the del key, hence pressing the 2nd key first) and then the key you want in there and it will be placed where the cursor is and push everything over. You CAN do this without using the insert key, but it just means you have to input every single thing after that that you want again. And if you want to replace something with something else, don't bother with the delete/insert thing, just press the key and its replaced.

If you need to change from Radiants to Degree's or back and forth, press Mode, there's an area with Radiants and Degree's, just highlight the one you want and press enter.

If you're looking for the "to the power of", you will find an x² that will only do a to the power of 2, if you want to do say to the power of 13, you need to put in the number, press the ^ key just beneath the clear key, and then press the number you want it to be to the power of, so on your calculator it will look something like this: 3x^5 for example, which you know what it is, I would write it out with the little 5 above the x but I can't find that particluar icon in my character map, only a 2 and 3.

Sin Cos and Tan are also in there, but if your used to typing the number in THEN tan or something, you're going to have to switch it, because the way it works is when you press one of those buttons it shows up as SIN( and inside the ( you put in your numbers, and if you're multiplying it by something else you need to close it with a ) otherwise it gets really messed up. Same thing with the inverses.

And before I forget, if you want to multiply something like (2 + 3)(5-4) or something like that you can put it in exactly like that in the calculator and it will multiply it out, thats what the brackets are for.

If you want to put an x into the thing, you dont need to go [ALPHA] + [STO ->], you can just press the [X,T,(theta),n] button - used (theta) cause thats another symbol I can't find - and an X will pop up.

Now on to using it for doing graphs.

As Mrs. Ingram showed us today in class, pressing the y= button takes you to a funky thing where you can input a y value. By pressing graph, that y value is displayed on the graph on the calculator. If you can't see the line or graph, pressing ZOOM then the number for zoom out/zoom in then enter TWICE (mine is one of the picky ones, some you only need to press once others you need to press twice) and the view will change. Going back to its original would be ZOOM -> standard.

If you want to make a table, you can go [2nd] + [GRAPH] and it will take you to a table. If you want to plot the points on the graph, you need to hit [2nd] [y=] for the stat plot, hit ENTER on the first one, then enter again to turn that one on. You can change the x list and y list, they correspond to the lists you just put in on the table. To change it from L1 to L2 for example, highlight that part, hit [2nd] then on numbers 1 to 6 you have L1 to L6, depending on which one you want. Once thats done, hit Graph and it should be displayed on your graph, if you cant see it press ZOOM and STAT (you have to scroll down a bit to see it) and it shold show up - I'm also going off memory for this and I can't remember for sure if thats it.

Pie key is [2nd] and [^]

Don't ask me what the [math], [apps], or [prgm] buttons do, I don't know.

In the y= area, if you want to change how your line looks on the graph, just arrow over to the / thing before the y= part and press enter, it changes to different modes.

If your too lazy to type out your answer after making a calculation, just pressing + or - or something like that automatically inserts ANS-> before hand, which means whatever is after the + is added on to the answer from your last equation.

Thats about all I can remember. This will get added on to as we go along with new stuff from classes but these are some of the basics and some that I have learned. Keep in mind these calculators take 4 AAA batteries so have a stash handy. To turn it off before it does automatically, just hit [2nd] and [on] and it will shut off. Hope this helps you guys out in getting the hang of things and give you a bit of a boost in class.