Re: TI-89 and AP Test


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Re: TI-89 and AP Test



On Thu, 24 Dec 1998 21:36:27 +0000, Peter Ammon
<Peter_Ammon@rocketmail.com> wrote:

>The College Board allows the new TI-89 on the AP Calculus AB and BC
>tests.  The TI-89 can do definite integrals symbolically; in other
>words, if you ask it for the integral of 1/Sqrt(1-x^2) from 0 to 1 it
>will tell you Pi/2 instead of 1.5708...
>
>It was not infallible; for example, it failed to solve the integral from
>0 to infinity of e^-(x^2)  (Sqrt(pi)/2, if you don't remember), but it
>was still damn powerful.  Now, who's going to bother learning how to
>integrate if the calculator will do it for them on the AP test?  I say,
>either ban the TI-89 from the AP or lengthen the calculator-less section
>of the test.
>
>Comments?
>
>-Peter
-

Now, I dont know what an AP test is, but had a similiar discussion
with my math-proffesor at the University og Erhus, Denmark. The
conclusion was that it doen't matter how you get the result. If you
have a problem you will have to write up that problem correct, in
order for you to see what the mathematical problem really is and then
solve. How you solve it doent matter because if you can write up the
problem correctly then you have in fact solved the problem, since it
is not so important what the numeric answer is.

best regards

Steffen Mxller


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