TI-89 Graphing Calculator For Dummies (For Dummies Series)

When I first bought my TI-89 calculator, this book didn't exist - shucks. I had to resort to using the manual provided by Texas Instruments to ferret out the features of the calculator. But, when I discovered this book, I bought a copy, and I'm glad I did. If you plan on using a TI-89, TI-89 Titanium, TI-92 Plus, or the Voyager 200 calculator, according to the author, this book is for you. I tend to agree.In this book, Edwards covers the basics of using the calculator in the first two chapters. After this introduction to the calculator, he covers doing algebra and trigonometry problems, and then segues into graphing and analyzing functions in Part III where he devotes three chapters to these topics. The next part (four chapters) deals with sequences, parametric equations, and polar equations. Part V covers differential and integral calculus, a chapter on vector calculus, a chapter on graphing surfaces and contour maps, and a chapter on differential equations. In the remaining parts, he covers matrices, probability, and statistics. He finishes with using the calculator to communicate with the PC or other calculators. In the appendix, you get an introduction into creating custom menus.Each chapter of the book is written so that if you know the basics covered in the first chapters, you can just jump to the chapter you need and learn what you need to know for the task at hand. I think Edwards has done a great job of explaining the use of this calculator. He has plenty of screen shots from the calculator to illustrate the explanations in the text. I had no problem following along. Note that this is not designed to be a comprehensive book covering all functions of the calculator. Don't throw out you Texas Instruments manual. It touches base on the most important and probably the most likely to be used functions.The only thing I might have liked to have seen is, perhaps, some practice problems at the end of each chapter with screen shots of the solutions, but even so the book explains things pretty well. If you want a "cheat sheet" of calculator shortcuts and a summary of features that you can print out, do a search on Google for "TI-89 graphing calculator for dummies cheat sheet." This provides a handy reference you can stuff in a book.

It was a sad day when I realized I had to put my trusty ti-84+ plus silver edition to rest. We had some great times...but ultimately she just didn't have the power I needed. Changing calculators is always an emotional and traumatic experience, but this book helps to ease the pain. The ti-89 is an excellent calculator, but a bit more complicated than the earlier model ti's. More power means more menus, more functions, and ultimately, more places for confusion. This book is kind of like a road map for the calculator -- you won't want to read it cover to cover, but you'll definitely want it handy when you lose yourself in the ti-89. For those of you who are not sure whether or not you want to buy the book, here are some things the book does and doesn't do.This book will not teach you how to do math. It will not give you problems to practice on. It will not explain what mathematical terms mean. It is not a textbook.This book will tell you how to use the calculator for the tasks you wish to accomplish (take a definite integral, differentiate a function, decompose something into partial fractions, switch between polar and cartesian coordinates,graph a function, etc. etc.) the book also gives some shortcuts and points out some common user errors.Like I said before, the ti-89 is powerful calculator, which can sometimes make using it a bit daunting at first-- this book will help ease you in to the calculator and allow you to use it to its full potential.

The book was perfect! No dents or wrinkled pages I feel it t is truly NEW!

The title doesn't mention it, but it covers the TI-89 Titanium (which I have), the TI-92 Plus and the Voyage 200, all of which use the same operating system. The 92 and 200 have QWERTY keyboards, and I now wish I had purchased one of them instead.Written by C.C. Edwards who holds a Ph.D. in mathematics and copywrited in 2005, the book is a bit dated because the OS has evolved since then, which leads to some inaccuracies. For example, the author states "there are no key combinations where you hold one key and press another". Never say never: If you hold the up arrow (beneath COPY) and press the left or right arrow key, it highlights the portion of the entry you want to copy to delete. Very handy. So it's time for a new edition.However, I'm glad I bought it because it's well written, easy to understand, has a good index and glossary, and is much more user friendly then the 89's manual which I find to be pretty cryptic. Dr. Edward's book is designed to teach you how to use the calculator. The 89's manual does that to some extent, but for the most part it's designed to simply define the calculator's functions in a seemingly random format.There are free online tutorials for the 89, but I found them to be little better than the 89's manual. So, in the end, I highly recommend Dr. Edward's book, and I also found that I could buy it from Amazon and have it sent to my mailbox cheaper then I could pick it up at the store, most of which had to order it in which would have taken longer.

Be aware that this WAS published in 2005 and the TI-89 you buy today does always not correspond/is configured differently than when this was written. (SURPRISE!) For example, the section on the "diamond key" describes it as being on the RH side of the calculator, it's on the left, not to mention the fact the it doesn't really tell you everything it does. So you can be at a disadvantage in some instances.However, as a supplemental text for the TI-89 novice floundering about, anything is helpful and this is nice to at hand. (In addition to the thousand + page manual .pdf saved in your favorites online.) (SO not kidding.)