Getting Started - Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus User Manual

Getting Started

Work through this exercise to become familiar with the basic features of the Conic
Graphing application. In this exercise, you trace the trajectory of Haley's comet.
One of the more common uses of conics is to show the orbits of
planets and other astronomical bodies. Planets have closed
orbits that are almost circular, while comets have highly elliptical
orbits. For example, Haley's comet follows a long path out from
the sun, but passes very close to the sun when it returns to the
solar system. It has a major axis of 36.18 astronomical units, and
an eccentricity of 0.97 (Larsen, Hostetler, and Edwards. 1997,
821). You can use Conic Graphing to trace the trajectory of
Haley's comet.
Note To complete this exercise, you need to set your calculator to
radian mode before you start the Conics application. To do this:
1. Press
2. Move the cursor to Radian, and press
3.
TI-83 Plus Conic Graphing
.
Press to exit the mode screen.
.
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