Texas Instruments TI-84 Plus Silver Edition User manual

Chapter 1
GETTING TO KNOW
YOUR TI-84 PLUS
SILVER EDITION
Chapter Check-In
❑ Getting acquainted with the TI-84 Plus Silver
Edition Keys
❑ Learning how to edit expressions and adjust your
mode settings
❑ Establishing communication between two graphing
calculators
In this chapter, I take you through the basics of your TI-84 Plus Silver Edition. In addition to learning
how to turn your graphing calculator on and off, you
also learn some quick editing tricks and how to config-
ure your mode settings to suit your needs.
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COPYRIGHTEDMATERIAL

CliffsNotes Guide to the TI-84 Plus Family
4
Turning Your TI-84 Plus Silver
Edition On and Off
Prior to turning on your TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, you
need to remove the battery cover located on the back of
the graphing calculator and install four AAA batteries.
To turn on your TI-84 Plus Silver Edition,
press o.
If you had previously turned off your
TI-84 Plus Silver Edition by pressing
`¨, it will display the home screen
as it was when you last used it. You
might see a message box reminding you
to PRESS ALPHA F1–F4 TO LOCATE
SHORTCUT MENUS.
To turn off your TI-84 Plus Silver Edition,
press `¨.
All settings and memory contents are
retained by Constant Memory™.
To prolong the life of the batteries, your graphing calcu-
lator has an Automatic Power Down™ (APD) feature
that turns off your TI-84 Plus Silver Edition automati-
cally after about 5 minutes without any activity. If this
should happen to you, just press oto continue work-
ing where you left off.
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Chapter 1: Getting to Know Your TI-84 Plus 5
Using the `and aKeys
The secondary function associated with each key appears
in blue above the key. When you press the `key, the
character, abbreviation, or word printed above the other
keys becomes active for the next keystroke. For example,
when you press `and then i, the MATRIX menu
comes up.
The akey allows you to access the green letters A
through Z located above many of the keys. The a
key also allows you to access the shortcut menus associ-
ated with the 2.53MP Operating System. For example,
press a∏ to access the FRAC shortcut menu.
The other shortcut menus are aπ (FUNC),
a∫ (MTRX), and aª (YVAR).
Finally, the key sequence a∑ is used to solve
equations with the Solver feature. The Solver feature is
found in the MATH submenu.
Adjusting the Display
You can adjust the contrast (or darkness) of the screen
by following these steps.
1. Press and release the `key.
2. Press and hold :to darken the screen or press
and hold ;to lighten the screen.
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CliffsNotes Guide to the TI-84 Plus Family
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A number located in the top right corner
of the screen indicates the contrast level.
If you need to set this number to 7 or
higher, then you want to replace the bat-
teries soon. Concurrent with this, you’ll
also probably notice a low battery mes-
sage when you turn on the graphing
calculator.
Using the TI-84 Plus Silver
Edition Edit Keys
Your TI-84 Plus Silver Edition is designed to allow you
to quickly enter, edit, and execute expressions and com-
mands. Here’s a list of several keystrokes and their asso-
ciated results.
■ >or <: Moves the cursor to the right and left
within an expression.
■ :or ;: Moves the cursor through MathPrint™
expressions such as stacked fractions and integrals.
These keys also allow you to access the history.
■ `<: Moves the cursor to the beginning of an
expression.
■ `>: Moves the cursor to the end of an expression.
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Chapter 1: Getting to Know Your TI-84 Plus 7
■ e: Executes an instruction and/or expression.
■ `ï: Changes the cursor to an underline (_)
and inserts characters in front of the underline
cursor. Press the direction arrow keys or `ï
to exit insert mode.
■ a: Changes the cursor to ‹, indicating that
the next keystroke will insert a letter, provide
access to the ∏–ªshortcut menus, or execute
the Solver feature (a∑).
■ añ: Setsthegraphingcalculator inalpha-
lock mode. This is a good option if you need to type
several letters in succession. To exit alpha-lock, press
a.
Adjusting the Mode Settings
Your TI-84 Plus Silver Edition mode settings control
how your graphing calculator displays and interprets
numbers and graphs. The Constant Memory feature
preserves your current mode settings even when you
turn off the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition.
Press Mto access the mode settings on your TI-84
Plus Silver Edition, as shown in the two screen images
in Figure 1-1. The current mode settings for your
graphing calculator will appear highlighted.
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CliffsNotes Guide to the TI-84 Plus Family
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Figure 1-1 The mode settings window.
Each row of the mode settings window relates to a differ-
ent type of setting. For example, the second row allows
you to specify the number of decimal digits to display in
an answer. FLOAT displays all significant digits of a
number up to a maximum of ten. The numerical settings
to the right of FLOAT lock in the number of decimal
digits to display for all results. Keep in mind that
numeric values stored to your graphing calculator mem-
ory are always unrounded, regardless of the numeric
display setting of your handheld.
The factory default mode settings are
those located on the leftmost side of the
mode settings screen.
Here are the steps to change the mode settings.
1. Press ;or :to move to the line of the setting
you want.
2. Press >or <to move the cursor to the setting
you want.
3. Press e.
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Chapter 1: Getting to Know Your TI-84 Plus 9
Here’s a brief description of each mode setting.
■ NORMAL SCI ENG: Numeric notation
■ FLOAT 0123456789: Number of decimal places
■ RADIAN DEGREE: Unit of angle measure
■ FUNC PAR POL SEQ: Function, Parametric,
Polar, or Sequence graphing mode
■ CONNECTED DOT: Whether to connect graph
points or plot graphs as discrete points
■ SEQUENTIAL SIMUL: Whether to plot graphs
one at a time or simultaneously
■ REAL : Real, rectangular complex, or
Polar complex
■ FULL HORIZ G-T: Full screen or your choice of
two different split-screen modes
■ MATHPRINT CLASSIC: Switch between
MathPrint and Classic mode
■ n/d Un/d: Display fractions in improper format
or in mixed fraction format
■ ANSWERS: AUTO DEC FRAC: Set the form of
answers. The AUTO form gives answers in frac-
tion form if the input was a fraction and decimal
form if the input was a decimal.
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CliffsNotes Guide to the TI-84 Plus Family
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■ GOTO FORMAT GRAPH: NO YES: Select YES
to go to the graph format menu.
■ STAT DIAGNOSTICS: OFF ON: Turn on or off
the statistical diagnostics.
Linking Graphing Calculators
You can send a variety of items from one graphing calcula-
tor to another, including programs, Apps, matrices, pic-
tures — even the operating system itself. In this section, I
show you how to send a program. You can be assured,
however, that you can use the steps I outline here for just
about any transfer.
Your TI-84 Plus Silver Edition comes with a USB
Unit-to-Unit cable that is used to establish communi-
cation between two TI-84 Plus (or TI-84 Plus Silver
Edition) graphing calculators. You also have the option
of using the I/O port (located on the top left edge of
your handheld) to communicate with another TI-84
Plus Silver Edition, as well as other TI products such as
the TI-83 family of graphing calculators or a CBL 2™
(for data collection purposes).
Here, I tell you how to set up communication between
two TI-84 Plus Silver Edition calculators using the USB
Unit-to-Unit cable.
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Chapter 1: Getting to Know Your TI-84 Plus 11
Follow these steps to connect the two graphing
calculators.
1. Locate the USB port on the top right edge of
the graphing calculator and firmly insert either
end of the USB Unit-to-Unit cable into the
USB port.
2. Repeat Step 1 with the other graphing
calculator.
So that I don’t forget, I always position
the sending graphing calculator on the
left and the receiving graphing calculator
on the right.
A file created with the 2.53MP Operating
System that contains new features (such
as stacked fractions) will not transfer to
an earlier operating system. To check
your operating system, press `´
and select 1:About.
Now it’s time to send a program from one handheld to
another. I am sending a program called SLOPEFLD,
which is a very handy program related to the study of
Calculus. Here are the steps to follow.
1. On the receiving calculator, press `ó to
access the LINK menu.
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CliffsNotes Guide to the TI-84 Plus Family
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2. Press >to view the LINK RECEIVE menu and
press eto select Receive. The word Waiting...
appears on the screen.
3. On the sending calculator, press `ó to
access the LINK SEND menu.
4. Press 3to select Pgrm... A list of all programs
that reside on the sending handheld appears.
5. Use the :; keys to position the 䊳symbol next
to the program you want to send and press
eto select it. Notice the 䡲symbol located next
to the selected program, as shown in Figure 1-2a.
6. Press >to access the TRANSMIT menu and
press eto select Transmit. After a few
moments, the transfer completes as indicated by
the screen shown in Figure 1-2b.
Figure 1-2 Sending a program from one TI-84 Plus Silver
Edition to another.
(a) (b)
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Chapter 1: Getting to Know Your TI-84 Plus 13
If the item you are sending already resides on the receiv-
ing graphing calculator, you will be prompted to
Rename the item (thus preserving the original),
Overwrite the item, Omit, or Quit.
Use similar steps to send other items from
one graphing calculator to another, such as
a matrix or an App. You also have the
option to mark and send multiple items.
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