Re: A89: help please


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Re: A89: help please




Ok, here's the deal.

The 89 tries to give you the 'perfect' answer.  But 8/9, expressed in
decimal, cannot be represented in a machine except 1) rounded off, or 2)
as a fraction.
Thus, when you enter "8/9" it gives you the perfect (or exact, as TI
refers to it) answer :8/9.

There are two ways around this.
1) When you want the 'approximate' answer(not exact, or perfect, but
decimal) press [diamond][enter] instead of [enter]
This tells the calc that no matter what the mode is, you want a decimal
as an answer.
2) press [mode] to go to the mode menu. Either arrow down awhile, or
press [f2], and you'll see "Exact/Approx..........AUTO"
Make sure AUTO is highlighted, and press the right arrow.  It brings a
selection window, where you'll see
"AUTO"
"EXACT"
"APPROXIMATE"

Use the arrows to higlight approximate, and press [enter].

Now your calc will always give you the best answer it can without using
fractions and other expressions.

I'm not going to explain what all this does.  Read your manual.  If you
don't have a manual, then you probably stole your calc, and should have
it rammed down your throat while it's displaying "8/9".  (don't worry,
it shuts off automatically.  The batteries should last quite a while as
you rot in your casket.)

If the manual is too difficult to understand, then you should assume the
calc is too difficult as well, and get a different one that suits your
needs.

I do not mean to offend you, but please don't expect everyone else to do
work for you so you don't have to read the manual.  I'm sure that as you
go along, you'll end up asking more and more questions unless you pore
over the manual now.

-Adam

aaronj@iname.com wrote:
> 
> im new to this calc i still dont get it i know this is a pain but i need
> help and cant find it in the book
> 
> At 03:04 PM 12/15/98 -0600, Nathan Mueller wrote:
> >
> >>I need some help, how do you divide 2 numbers with the ti-89 ?
> >>
> >>this sounds dumb but all i had to do on my 86 was type  8/9 and now i type
> >>in the same thing in my 89 and i get what i typed
> >>in or a reduced fraction
> >>
> >>how do i fix this?
> >
> >You can type <> (diamond) = to compute the decimal approximation.
> >
> >You know, I seem to remember some big white book that came with my
> >calculator.  It told me how to do all these simple things so I didn't have
> >to go asking an assembly programing list how to do simple division.
> >
> >       --Nate
> >
> >


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