I know how to use it for calculus and I know a bit about using it for algebra, but how do I use it for physics? Right now I am in physics I so we cover things like vectors and simple macro classical physics (torque, kinetic & potential energy, Force, momentum, etc). I don’t know if i’d actually need it, but I figure that sometimes when I have a huge equation I can use the calculator to solve the equation for me but that may be more of an algebra equation.
I certainly am not an expert at the Ti-89 but I don’t use mine at all for physics save solving equations. The only thing I can think of is that it might do some vector stuff for you. However you really ought to learn the vector stuff by hand.
I found it useful to check up on lengthy problems. I still had to show the work and all that, but I had a quick way to check that I got all the integrals, etc. correct.
Download relevant physics programs to your calculator. I used to do that all the time (well, mostly I just downloaded games to mine - a TI-86, but same difference). Obviously, learn the stuff, but there are a lot of programs out there that can be very useful.
http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/241/24172.html
I never even thought about that. That website says it has all the common intro to physics equations written down and can save me an assload of time if I download it into my Ti-89. Only problem is I have heard alot of calculator downloads are infected or can crash your calculator. Does the calculator have some kind of backup or defense against crashing or infection?
I can’t really say much about the calculators defense mechanisms. I’d just advise being a bit careful perhaps with what you download. I never had any troubles with mine and I used to download tons of stuff to my calculator. Obviously some of the programs crashed and were generally terrible, but this just meant deleting it and moving on. Actually, now that I think about it I may have lost the stuff in the calc memory due to bad programs a few times. I guess I just never saw it as a big deal. I could just throw them right back on there. Any programs I wrote were saved on my computer along with all the other stuff, so just load them right back on. Only a minor annoyance as far as I saw it. Obviously my memory on this topic is pretty hazy as it was a while ago I was using my TI-86. I am now a philosophy major at university and have no use at all for my calculator in any of my classes. Hopefully someone else will come along who can give you some better advice.
Yeah, definitely back your calculator up, or at least have the disc so you can reload programs and apps from there…I updated the OS on my ti-89 and it wiped out half my apps. I had to put them back on from the disc, and I couldn’t remember which ones had come pre-loaded.
I downloaded a chemistry program (no problems), but I don’t find myself using it much. The normal calculator functions are just as easy to use for solving those problems, for me. I’m still learning how to use this calculator, YMMV.
I have a great set of programs that can be downloaded into your calculator.
These programs include prompts for variables and easy to understand answers.
For example, using the gas equation, the prompt would be any variable in the equation with the unknown solved for. (Free fall, trajectile, acceleration, ramp problems, etc.)
Let me know what Textbook you are using or class and maybe I can help.
I miss college, and I haven’t had a physics class since 2005. Looking back at my post back then, I was much smarter at the time. No idea what happened.
What programs do you have for the ti 89 titanium or ti 84 plus? I can use any help i can find.
Drop it out the window and count the number of seconds until it hits the ground.
Physicists use Reverse Polish Notation.
Stranger
Ninja’d. I was also going to propose some experiments demonstrating Newton’s laws. Although my experimental setup was superior: chuck the TI-89 at a zombie’s head.
That wasn’t RPN.
Notation
Polish
<reverse>
<use>
ETA: I’m not a physicist, and I never really felt comfortable using RPN. Lazy, I guess, since AOS calculators were the norm in my normative years.
Fixed that for you… 
Just a reminder to not alter quoted text, even when it’s a joke. Thanks.
I downloaded your program but u can not access it. Can u plz help me?
I’m not a hard sciences guy at all (B.A. History), but I find RPN to be much more logical and easy to use.
There’s a probably apocryphal story about a noted physicist - he varies from story to story, but in the version I heard it was Max Planck - who in a test at school was asked how he would use a barometer to measure the height of a building. He answered that he would drop it off the roof and measure the time it took to hit the ground, and was failed on the question by the teacher, who told him not to play silly buggers but answer the question properly. Whereupon Planck provided a list of completely different but viable methods of measuring the height of a building with a barometer, including using it as a pendulum and measuring the time and amplitude of the swing; and offering it to the building owner as a bribe to tell him how high the building was. Then, he concluded, if he was really unimaginative, he supposed he could use it to measure the differences in air pressure on the ground floor and the roof.
I downloaded your program but I am unable to access it can u please help me.