A guide to some CAS calculator commands (TI nspire)

[gmx]

Regarding the new CAS calculator operating system, does anyone know what the purpose of the following commands are (and an example of how it may be used) ?

I am interested regardless of whether or not they are relevant to any VCE courses [but most appear to be relevant to the methods CAS course or would increase a students efficiency in completing relevant questions that are not explicitly expected to be completed on the CAS calculator].

Number --> number tools --> 'Floor'
                                               'Ceiling'

Algebra -->convert expression --> all commands in this menu
              --> zeroes
              --->complex
             --->extract

Calculus --> differential equation solver

probability --> distributions

statistics --> all

matrix --> transpose
           ---> row echelon form
          --->reduced row echelon form
         --->simultaneous
          -->norms

I also wondered what the following buttons were used for on the actual 'button pad':

A flag
a ':' symbol
a ';' symbol
a '?' symbol
a 'turning arrow symbol (90* turn)' symbol
a '_' symbol

[stonecold]

matrix rref can solve simultaneous equations.

e.g.

[the.watchman]

Floor and ceiling basically mean rounding down and up respectively to an integer

eg.

ETC. ETC.

Zeros means solutions when the expression equals zero

eg.

Complex is not really needed for methods but definitely for gma and spesh, it solves things like giving solutions with

Probability distributions are needed when you learn normal distributions later in methods

Statistics - most of it is unnecessary, except for things like regression, where you put x and y values in and it will give you a graph's eqn

eg. Cubic regression, make a set of 4 x-values and 4 y-values, then it will give you the eqn of the cubic curve

Hope you find this useful!

[Juddinator]

is it even worth upgrading to the new OS???

[the.watchman]

is it even worth upgrading to the new OS???

NO in my opinion
It's no better (if not worse) than the old one
And it doesn't play games in boring gma...

[Blakhitman]

play games?

[the.watchman]

play games?

Erm, well a few of my friends have tetris and super mario on their TIs
ANd pokemon...

[Blakhitman]

WTH...HOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You MUST tell me now...seriously!

[the.watchman]

WTH...HOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You MUST tell me now...seriously!

Well I suggest not, coz you'll be distracted (that's why I don't have it on mine )
Anyway, you can download a file off the internet to play stuff

[Blakhitman]

Yea, just found this....http://www.ticalc.org/pub/nspire/basic/games/

but I want Mario!

and nahh I need them for further.

[superflya]

dont bother, games on the n-spire are shit.

[the.watchman]

dont bother, games on the n-spire are shit.

Yeah, I know, but anything's better than GMA

[ZachCharge]

dont bother, games on the n-spire are shit.

Yeah, I know, but anything's better than GMA

You will never know the strugglehorror that is Further...
(So much lessons on learning how to enter numbers and press about 5 calculator commands).

[superflya]

dont bother, games on the n-spire are shit.

Yeah, I know, but anything's better than GMA

lol true gma sucks, but try playing poker on ur n-spire

[Blakhitman]

haha ZachCharge....Spot on there mate!