The TI-89 Home Screen
The home screen is the screen you see when the calculator is first
turned on. (Note: On the TI-89 Titanium, you can get to the home screen by selecting "Home" from the Apps menu, or by pressing the <Home> key.) You can reach it at any other time by pressing the
<HOME> key. Here is a brief explanation of the various areas on
the home screen.
- The Menus allow you to select various functions,
options, and tools. You access a function by pressing one of the
blue keys <F1> through <F5>. Menus F6 through F8 are
accessed by pressing <2nd><F1> through
<2nd><F3>.
- The History Area is where your previous entries and
results are temporarily stored. You can scroll through the history
area using the blue arrow keys. You can erase the history area by
selecting "8: Clear Home" from the "F1 - Tools" menu.
- The Entry Line is where the current function, equation,
expression, or command is displayed before it is executed. To
execute the instruction on the entry line, press the blue
<ENTER> key.
- The Status Line displays important information about
the calculator's current mode. The items on this line can be
edited by pressing the <MODE> button:
- The Current Folder is the folder in which any saved
items will be placed. The MAIN folder is the default.
- Angle mode (RADians or DEGrees) tells you how angles
will be interpreted. In AP Calculus, you will use RADian mode
almost exclusively. If you also use your calculator in DEGree
mode, in science class for instance, be sure that you return to
RADian mode for AP Calculus.
- Evaluation Mode (AUTOmatic, EXACT, or APPROXimate)
determines how the calculator will evaluate expressions:
- EXACT mode means that the calculator will try to
evaluate expressions exactly. For instance,
will evaluate to .
- APPROXimate mode means that the calculator will
return an approximate value for expressions - like a
"normal" calculator would. For instance,
will evaluate to 0.707107.
- AUTOmatic mode means that the calculator will
return an exact result whenever possible, and an approximate
result otherwise. This is the mode that we will normally use
in class. If you definitely want an approximate result,
press <Diamond><ENTER> instead of just
<ENTER>.
- The Graph Mode tells you what type of graph will be
displayed. In our class, we will use FUNCtion mode almost
exclusively.
- History Memory Status tells you how many expressions
the history area is currently holding followed by the number of
expressions that it can hold.
last update August 17, 2001 by JL
Stanbrough