Texas Instruments TI-82 Getting Started

Part I: Texas Instruments TI-82 Graphics Calculator
I.1 Getting started with the TI-82
I.1.1 Basics: Press the ON key to begin using your TI-82 calculator. If you need to adjust the display
contrast, first press 2nd, then press and hold (the up arrow key) to lighten or (the down arrow key)
to darken. As you press and hold or , an integer between 0 (lightest) and 9 (darkest) appears in the
upper right corner of the display. When you have finished with the calculator, turn it off to conserve battery
power by pressing 2nd and then OFF.
Check the TI-82's settings by pressing MODE. If necessary, use the arrow keys to move the blinking cursor
to a setting you want to change. Press ENTER to select a new setting. To start, select the options along the
left side of the MODE menu as illustrated in Figure I.1: normal display, floating decimals, radian measure,
function graphs, connected lines, sequential plotting, and full screen display. Details on alternative options
will be given later in this guide. For now, leave the MODE menu by pressing CLEAR.
Figure I.1: MODE menu Figure I.2: Home screen
I.1.2 Editing: One advantage of the TI-82 is that up to 8 lines are visible at one time, so you can see a long
calculation. For example, type this sum (see Figure I.2):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Then press ENTER to see the answer.
Often we do not notice a mistake until we see how unreasonable an answer is. The TI-82 permits you to
redisplay an entire calculation, edit it easily, then execute the corrected calculation.
Suppose you had typed 12 34 56 as in Figure I.2 but had not yet pressed ENTER, when you realize
that 34 should have been 74. Simply press (the left arrow key) as many times as necessary to move the
blinking cursor left to 3, then type 7 to write over it. On the other hand, if 34 should have been 384, move
the cursor back to 4, press 2nd INS (the cursor changes to a blinking underline) and then type 8 (inserts at
the cursor position and the other characters are pushed to the right). If the 34 should have been 3 only, move
the cursor to 4 and press DEL to delete it.
Technology Tip: To move quickly to the beginning on an expression you are currently editing, press (the
up arrow key); to jump to the end of that expression, press (the down arrow key).
Even if you had pressed ENTER, you may still edit the previous expression. Press 2nd and then ENTRY to
recall the last expression that was entered. Now you can change it. In fact, the TI-82 retains many prior
entries in a "last entry" storage area. Press 2nd ENTRY repeatedly until the previous line you want replaces
the current line.
Technology Guide
Graphing I-1
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