Assignment 2: Using Your Calculator Well
While it is awesome to have a graphing calculator (I love the Silver Edition of the TI83, but the new Numworks calculators are fantastic and slightly lower in cost), you can totally get by with a scientific calculator of your choice as long as your choice is not your cell phone.
You are going to need a good calculator for college anyway and now is a good time to invest in one. I have calculators to share in class, so if these is a financial strain, don't worry about it.
This assignment has you practice using your calculator. If you do not have a scientific calculator and need to use your phone, download the app that looks like a TI-84 so the process will be the same when you get to class.
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For the record, I try to avoid using parentheses when I can because you get a syntax error if you forget to close them. So this is the way I would enter this calculation into my scientific calculator:
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3.58 E6 m/s x 22.85s = ?
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These keystrokes: 3 . 5 8 second function EE 6 times 2 2 . 8 5 = 81803000 m. We need 3 significant digits so the answer is recorded as: 8.18 E 7 m or 81800000 m.
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You will become very familiar with all the powerful things your scientific calculator can do in AP Physics. We will enter complex calculations, square or cube variables, finding square roots, and solving for constants from graphs.
Print the PDF to the right out, and complete the calculations using units and
significant digits. YOU MUST SHOW WORK. No work, no credit. Bring it to your first class.
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The quiz for this assignment is at Quizizz.com but will not become live until mid-July.
You may take the quiz up to 2 times for full credit. Obviously, you'll want to be prepared with your calculator and paper before it starts as it is a timed test.