Comprehending how to scale graphs on a calculator
Despite the fact that they have a plethora of uses, the main ability of a graphing calculator remains the what they were first designed for, graphing. Despite this being the most critical feature, many graphing calculator owners do not comprehend how to use the window settings, which is unacceptable.
To begin, one must understand how the graphing features operate on a calculator. Irrespective of whether use a TI-Voyage or a Casio Prizm, it will be virtually the same. The calculator is actually just trying to plot points. At an interval that you select, say every 1 unit, the calculator plugs in a value of x to get y and then draws that point.
However, the problems is, the calculator doesn’t really know where the points should be plotted. Most calculators begin by using a “window” that displays something like all the x and y values between around -10 and 10. Even though that is find for a few equations. Many lines, parabolas, and cubics are going to be okay with this standard viewing window. On the contrary, there are numerous number of equations like trigonometry functions, exponential functions, even some of the heretofore mentioned functions that won’t look correct with that window.
So when your function looks weird in the default window, what can you do? One thing to try is to manually adjust the window. When you adjust the window settings manually, you have full direction over them. It can be hard to calculate exactly what the best window settings for your graph should be. One thing that can help is to find the places your graph crosses the axes. If you set the maximum x and y in the neighborhood of twenty five percent of the intercepts, you should have a nice viewing window. If it still looks “weird”, don’t stop trying. Try mutliplying your dimensions by two. On the other hand, you could cut them in half. Oftentimes, a small amoun of experimentation can really help. If you still can’t figure it out, there are simple alternatives to let the calculator’s programming solve the issue.
Most graphing calculators highlight a zoom option. The zoom option isn’t one zoom but numerous zooms. If there is a zoom box feature, you can take advantage of that to create a box on the screen and have the calculator zoom in on that box. Another option is zoom square. With zoom square, it will set your window up to make equations appear as they actually do, not distorted by the fact that many calculators are not equal in in width and height. If you need to graph on a trignometry function, look for a zoom trig capability. Zoom trig has the capability to adjust to whether you are going to set the calculator in radians or degrees. It’ll set the window from two pi to negative two pi or 360 to -360 as appropriate. If you’re still not having luck, you can try the zoom fit option. This will use the calculator’s best attempt to try to get the graph of the equation to fit on the screen in an accurate and easy to read way.
In summary, if you’re going to be a top notch student in math class with a calculator, you need to be aware of the window features with your calculator. They make graphs less difficult to comprehend, and they offer higher understanding into how your equations work.
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