Grapher Help...

[cateariffic]

I'm trying to teach myself calculus, and teach myself how to use a graphing utility. I've been told by friends that they've taken whole classes on how to use a graphing utility before taking a stinkin' class that uses one. Is this really necessary, or are these people who just aren't that interested in learning Calc?

This being said I keep stumbling on little stupid things that stop me from being able to learn stuff. Like at the moment I'm not able to figure out how to see a table of the points that I've plotted. That is to say I want to enter, for example, "y = x squared" and get a nice curved line, as well as a table that says "(-4,16), (-3,9) (-2,4)" et cetera...

I tried browsing and searching the help. No luck.

I had to e-mail a friend to find out where Grapher was. I kept searhing for "Graphing Utility," "Graphing Calculator..." Me and searches don't understand each other.

Cate

 

[Cromulent]

You should be able to see where the points are, and of course you can always work it out yourself. Don't forget when the program plots something like y = x^2 you are only seeing a small section of it. The graph extends to infinity on either side so having a table with a bunch of co-ordinates is rather meaningless.

 

[cateariffic]

Right, but I was hoping to have a tidy little list for one, and for two it's hard to describe fractional points.

And well, it's a desire to appeal to the authority of the text book. The exercise in my book calls for me to understand how to do this specific task with my utility. I loathe not doing the exercises because they so often lead to understanding or being able to do something else later.

But thank you...

Cate

 

[Cromulent]

Right, but I was hoping to have a tidy little list for one, and for two it's hard to describe fractional points.

And well, it's a desire to appeal to the authority of the text book. The exercise in my book calls for me to understand how to do this specific task with my utility. I loathe not doing the exercises because they so often lead to understanding or being able to do something else later.

But thank you...

Cate

What is the exercise you need to do?

 

[cateariffic]

Exercise

Well the exercise I was working on then was simply to make a table of intercepts of a particular graph, just to learn how to table intercepts.

Today I found out I could click on an intercept and that the point is described at the bottom of the screen.

I discovered that 'r' does not mean radius yesterday. I wonder if it means 'random,' after what I saw when I entered 'x squared plus y squared equals r squared'.

I'm also struggling to find how to enter an exponent of 4. (That is, how can I have an exponent other than the squared or cubed in the Equation Palette.)

Cate

P.S. And why does y = x cubed - x + 1 yield (-1.32,0) on a TI and (-1,0) on Grapher!?! It has something to do with the "ZERO" or "ROOT" feature on a TI.

It's just that this book is geared for people using a TI. It seems that ultimately Grapher is, well, prettier and simpler to use. Grapher's just not the center piece of this text book. I don't wanna use the TI!

 

[TomM]

About Exercise

On the exponents you can enter y=x 4th power by typing y= x^4 where
the [shift] [6] keys will provide the "top hat". To enter something like
y = x cubed + 8, type y = x^3 [right arrow] [right arrow] + 8. If you don't hit the right arrow key twice you will get y = x (3+8) power.

x squared + y squared = r squared is the equation of a circle, with r
being the radius as you thought. It seems that you must specify a value
of r to avoid getting an infinite number of circles.

The curve for the x cubed equation crosses the x axis at x = -1.32 which
makes that value a root. Since the curve is not touching the x axis at
x = -1, I wouldn't think that value is a root. I'm not familiar with using
a TI to find roots, but it may be good to check that the sequence of key strokes and commands you used is correct.

Good luck,

TomM

 

[iMacmatician]

P.S. And why does y = x cubed - x + 1 yield (-1.32,0) on a TI and (-1,0) on Grapher!?! It has something to do with the "ZERO" or "ROOT" feature on a TI.

It should be (-1.32, 0). There aren't any other real roots.

 

[cateariffic]

Why don't we have a stuffy way of saying 'y'all'?

Y'all, you guys, Ustedes were right. I had incorrectly entered the equation.

And the thing that is not a hat (^) was great. One need only press the right arrow once (in case anyone is desperately trying to save themselves keystrokes).

I had a dream last night that I was looking through the Equation Palette, there was a menu of functions, some had very swirly pretty patterns, and it was fun looking, but I couldn't find the simple thing I was looking for....

That has been my experience so far, looking for things and finding neat little things, but not having any success in finding the thing I was looking for.

So I was excited about the exponent thing and then looked up "Characters" in the help menu, and there found a page explaining several characters and operators, including the "hat" (^) for the radical and the underscore (_) for an index.

I have another question if ye guys, thou all's, if thees countenances are so designed, to answer more simple Grapher questions. How does one enter an equation and then give a variable a value. (Like in the Torus Knot equation one can clearly see p = 3.)

Thanks again...

Cate