Quite a handy machine, really, these TI-83 calculators.
When they’re not being confiscated by teachers trying to teach over the delights of Tetris (and other downloaded games), they’re being confiscated as “notes,” typed out on the calculator screen. Very easy to erase all signs of said “illegal” activities.
However, when they’re actually being used as the designers, or at least the teachers, wanted them to be used for, they’re found to be ridiculously complex to the point of needing a road map to find the “equals” button. My first Algebra II teacher (we ran through several of these) had to haul out her 567 page manual guide each day—technology in the true sense that it’s manual is actually bigger than the product itself. However, as soon as you’ve figured out 5 buttons and have memorized the order in which they need to be pressed—believe me; there are several combinations—homework all of a sudden becomes a mere matter of copying down what you see on your calculator screen.
Beware, though. More likely than not (or most likely, as the case may be and often is) you’ll soon scare yourself silly with some wrong button that blats out rows upon rows of numbers and confusing symbols. If you’re lucky, you’ll only get an error message and spend a mere half hour getting back to where you were before you pushed the wrong button. Then of course you press the wrong button again and spend the next hour trying to find all the pieces of your calculator that you just threw against the wall with enough force to kill an elephant. Then you figure out that it would be cheaper to buy a new TI-83 rather than pay to get it fixed.
Good thing you’re only borrowing it from the school.
I love my CWARAOB. It’s a Casio FCX-950Ga Plus with a color graphing display and more functrions than I’ll ever use in my lifetime. I also have 8 other CWAROBs. I sort of collect them.
UncleBeer, that was my first Dream Calculator! I couldn’t afford one, and I used to draw it in my sketchbok in a kind of helpless mathematical yearning.
Then I got to university and discovered the HP-41. I couldn’t afford it either… (my dad gave me an HP-33C when I graduated high school).
Anyone out there got an EL-5100 to sell? <hopeful look>
HP48S for me. It was great in calculus when I wanted to look at the graph to understand an equation. And now I love it cause it converts UNITS. Mmmm being able to go from microns to mils, or years to seconds mmmm.
Plus I have blackjack and block to play. And add 5 + 5 = ___.
I dunno, I’ve been pretty adept with the TI series since the first graphing calculator came out. Programming on that thing is almost the easiest thing I’ve ever done in math. Fun as hell, too.
Oh man, I love my TI-89. It’s even easier to use than the old 83 I used to use, and also more powerful. The symbolic algebra is maybe a little too powerful, though. It’s a good thing I like doing integrals by hand, or I probably would have forgotten how by now. The same with physical units. I’m not sure how other calculators handle units, but the TI-89 does it so well.
Funny the subject of calculators should come up. No one including the people in the math lab could figure out how to do LinReg on my TI-81. I know it can be done because when I hit the STAT button, there it is 2: LinReg. But I can’t seem to find a button for brackets (maybe the parenthesis keys work here) and no one had a clue what to store my list of numbers in. Apparantly on the TI-83s and up there are L1 and L2 keys. But not on my TI-81. I’m afraid my manual is lost in the same void that contains my high school ring and all those missing socks. Until I solve the mystery, I’m forced to pay 25 cents/day to check out a TI-83 from the lab everytime I need to do a LinReg.
log - computes the logarithm, base 10
In - computes the natural logarithm, base e
° ’ ‘’ - converts decimal degrees to degrees, minutes and seconds
hyp - sets hyperbolic mode for trig functions.
sin - computes the sine of an angle
cos - computes the cosime of an angle
tan - computes the tangent of an angle
{(— - left parenthesis
—)} - right praentheses
An “e” with a little bitty “x” where the exponent should be. - computes the natual antilogatithm.
d/c - toggles betwee mixed fraction and improper fraction.
sin-1 - computes angle given it’s sine (arcsine)
cos-1 - computes angle given its cosine (arccosine)
tan-1 - computes angle given its tangent (arctangent)
Anything else you need can be found on the TI website, where they have the entire TI-81 manual. Entering Statistical data is page 118, and linear regression is page 122.
Just what kind of math student are you? 