Finding trig functions on TI calculators?

Hi,

There are many different types of calculators, but the most often used in high school and college are the TI-83 Plus and the TI-84. So, I'll assume your students will have one of those. First let's do arcsin (.72). Now, I'm going to assume that is in radians. So, first one needs to set the calculator for radians and leave it there. Do that by pressing MODE and highlighting "radians" and pressing ENTER.

Find arcsin (.72) as follows:

Press 2nd, SIN; then enter .72, and press ENTER.

Now, some would say to find sin of 37 degrees you need to change the MODE, but you really don't. Just leave the MODE set to radians and do the following;

Press SIN, enter 37; then press 2nd, ANGLE (the APPS key), ENTER, ENTER. That way you don't need to change the MODE.

formeng

For sine/cosine/tangent, there's a button for that:

sin( and the angle goes here)

cos ()

tan ()

For the inverses, the keystrokes are the 2nd button -> function you want the inverse of. So arcsin would be 2nd button -> sin

The trig function keys are labeled

SIN COS TAN

The inverse is accessed with

[2nd] then SIN COS TAN

You change the "mode" between degrees, radians, gradients with the key DRG. Pressing [2nd] and DRG converts the number shown from current mode to the "next in line..."