Calculators:

In this course, you are required to use a scientific calculator on tests. Most people have one or more of these lying around the house. That will be fine to use. If you want to buy one, you should be able to find several acceptable ones for about $10 or less. I recommend that you get one with a two-line display and two-variable statistics. The advantage of a two-line display is that you can still see what you typed in after you see the result of the calculation. That makes it easier to find mistakes. The advantage of two-variable statistics is that you can use it to compute the correlation coefficient between two variables. You are NOT REQUIRED to get a calculator with a two-line display or that does two-variable statistcs.

Every calculator company I know about has several calculators like this. I am not listing them here. But it may be useful to see a picture, so here is such a picture: http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/productDetail/us_ti30x_iib.html

Computing statistical functions on a calculator

General Hints for scientific calculators

General Hints for graphing calculators

After you think you have figured out how to use your calculator, then use it to find the mean and standard deviation of these numbers: 3, 4, 6, 6, 9. Your answers should be: mean = 5.6 and standard deviation = 2.30217. Then write down some notes for yourself on how to use your calculator to do this so that you can look them up later if you forget. .

Specific Calculator Instructions:

• TI 36X Solar
• TI 83
• TI 86

Texas Instruments Guidebooks: http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/sectionHome/download.html

Casio Manuals: http://world.casio.com/calc/download/en/manual/

Sharp Manuals: http://www.sharpusa.com/products/TypeManuals/0,1083,15,00.html

Afterthought: If you want to see a picture of a calculator with a 2-line display, look here: http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/productDetail/us_ti30x_iib.html

Last updated August 27, 2008 . If you have questions or find links that don't work, please feel free to email me: Mary Parker