Transum Software

Using a Calculator Level 3

Questions to test your ability to use a basic calculator, scientific calculator and a graphic display calculator.
BIDMAS Workout Basic Scientific Graphic display Description Help More...
GDC Essentials

If you have a TI-Nspire CX calculator (GDC) you will probably be interested in 20 essential skills, beyond the basics, put together in a 'learn a skill a day' presentation called GCD Essentials.

This is level 3; Using a graphic display calculator. The questions provide practice using a calculator to obtain results accurately. You can earn a trophy if you get at least 9 questions correct.

1. Find the cube root of 10077.696 Correct Wrong
2. Use your calculator's equation solving function to find the largest root of the equation 3x² + 13x + 2 = 0 giving your answer to two decimal places. Correct Wrong
3. Enter the following matrix into your calculator:
421
201
303
Use the calculator function to find the determinant of the matrix.		 Correct Wrong
4. Draw the graphs of y = x² and y = 2x on your calculator. Find, to three significant figures, the x-coordinate of the leftmost point of intersection.
Two Graphs		 Correct Wrong
5. Find the y-coordinate of the local maximum of the function f(x) = x3 - 6x2 + 5x + 1 giving your answer to two decimal places. Correct Wrong
6. Enter the following data into your calculator then use the built in function to find the (population) standard deviation giving your answer to two decimal places. 2, 4, 8, 9, 13, 17, 20, 21, 23. Correct Wrong
7. Enter the following two lists into your calculator then use the built in function to find the (population) standard deviation giving your answer to two decimal places.
ScoreFrequency
19
52
93
123
147
158
174
185
226
 Correct Wrong
8. Use the calculator app for solving simultaneous equations to find the value of x from the following:
2.9x + 7y = 40.09
4.5x + 6.9y = 49.53
 Correct Wrong
9. Use the calculator app to find the value of x from the following simultaneous equations:
8x + 5y + 2z = 120
6x + 7y + 5z = 139.7
6x + 9y + 2z = 130.6
 Correct Wrong
10. In a clinical trial volunteers are testing a new medicine. Here are the results
ImprovedNo ImprovementTotal
Given medicine7790167
Not given medicine8598183
Total162188350

Find chi-squared(χ²) to three decimal places.		 Correct Wrong
11. A lawyer invests her savings of $21000 in an account that pays 5% p.a. compounded monthly. How much interest will she earn in 10 months? $ Correct Wrong
12. Find the gradient of the least squares regression line fitting the following data points:
(67, 35), (14, 71), (48, 17), (39, 35), (60, 25), (37, 53), (46, 28), (25, 51), (51, 33), (35, 35), (76, 40), (50, 24).
Give your answer to two decimal places.		 Correct Wrong
Check

This is Graphic display calculator. You can also try:
BIDMAS Calculator Workout Basic calculator Scientific calculator

Instructions

Try your best to answer the questions above. Type your answers into the boxes provided leaving no spaces. As you work through the exercise regularly click the "check" button. If you have any wrong answers, do your best to do corrections but if there is anything you don't understand, please ask your teacher for help.

When you have got all of the questions correct you may want to print out this page and paste it into your exercise book. If you keep your work in an ePortfolio you could take a screen shot of your answers and paste that into your Maths file.
Why am I learning this?

Mathematicians are not the people who find Maths easy; they are the people who enjoy how mystifying, puzzling and hard it is. Are you a mathematician?

Comment recorded on the 1 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Phil Anthony, Head of Maths, Stourport High School:

"What a brilliant website. We have just started to use the 'starter-of-the-day' in our yr9 lessons to try them out before we change from a high school to a secondary school in September. This is one of the best resources on-line we have found. The kids and staff love it. Well done an thank you very much for making my maths lessons more interesting and fun."

Comment recorded on the 1 August 'Starter of the Day' page by Peter Wright, St Joseph's College:

"Love using the Starter of the Day activities to get the students into Maths mode at the beginning of a lesson. Lots of interesting discussions and questions have arisen out of the activities.
Thanks for such a great resource!"

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Featured Activity

Strategy Games

Strategy Games

We have collected together lots of strategy games for you to enjoy. Many of them have mathematical principles involved in their design so would make a good activity for a Mathematics lesson.

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Go Maths

Learning and understanding Mathematics, at every level, requires learner engagement. Mathematics is not a spectator sport. Sometimes traditional teaching fails to actively involve students. One way to address the problem is through the use of interactive activities and this web site provides many of those. The Go Maths page is an alphabetical list of free activities designed for students in Secondary/High school.

Maths Map

Are you looking for something specific? An exercise to supplement the topic you are studying at school at the moment perhaps. Navigate using our Maths Map to find exercises, puzzles and Maths lesson starters grouped by topic.

Teachers

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It may be worth remembering that if Transum.org should go offline for whatever reason, there is a mirror site at Transum.info that contains most of the resources that are available here on Transum.org.

When planning to use technology in your lesson always have a plan B!

Transum,

Thursday, June 13, 2019

"I have just noticed something I hadn’t realised about the Windows calculator. When running in standard mode it operates LTR (2+3x5=25) while in scientific mode it obeys the normal order of operations (2+3x5=17). Worth knowing when learning about BIDMAS or PEMDAS

Windows calculator

"

Dave Grochocki, Twitter

Sunday, June 16, 2019

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Description of Levels

BIDMAS - Learn about the order of operations.

Calculator Workout - Examples of all the major calculator operations.

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Level 1 - Basic calculator quiz.

Level 2 - Scientific calculator quiz.

Level 3 - Graphic display calculator quiz.

More on this topic including lesson Starters, visual aids and investigations.

Answers to this exercise are available lower down this page when you are logged in to your Transum account. If you don’t yet have a Transum subscription one can be very quickly set up if you are a teacher, tutor or parent.

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Examples

Click on a link below to see an example and an animated key-press diagram of a calculator.

Skill 1: Basic Operations e.g. Calculate the value of \(9+4−7\)

Skill 2: Using Brackets e.g. Calculate the value of \(5(9-4)\)

Skill 3: Percentage of a quantity e.g. What is \(24% of 1800\)?

Skill 4: One quantity as a percentage of another e.g. What is \(45\) as a percentage of \(150\)?

Skill 5: Squares and square roots e.g. Calculate the value of \(\sqrt{5^2 + 12^2}\)

Skill 6: Indices e.g. \((3^3 + 2^4)^2\)

Skill 7: Cube roots e.g. Find the value of \( \sqrt[3]{27} \)

Skill 8: Standard Form e.g. Express \(236731\) in standard form correct to 3 significant figures.

Skill 9: Areas of circles e.g. [Give all answers correct to three significant figures]. e.g. Find the area of a circle with a radius of 9cm.

Skill 10: Fraction calculations e.g. Find the value of \( 3\frac13 + 2\frac25 \)

Skill 11: Trigonometry e.g. Evaluate \(21 \sin34°\) to three significant figures 1.

Skill 12: Degrees (or Hours), Minutes and Seconds e.g. Convert the angle 16°35'40" to its decimal equivalent.

Skill 13: Using Variables e.g. If \(A = 1.62\), \(B = 9.87\) and \(C = 5.62\)
evaluate \(AB+BC−AC\).

Skill 14: Combinations e.g. How many different groups of 3 can be selected from 8?

Skill 15: Permutations e.g. In how many different ways could 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes can be awarded to 3 of 8 competitors?

Don't wait until you have finished the exercise before you click on the 'Check' button. Click it often as you work through the questions to see if you are answering them correctly. You can double-click the 'Check' button to make it float at the bottom of your screen.

Answers to this exercise are available lower down this page when you are logged in to your Transum account. If you don’t yet have a Transum subscription one can be very quickly set up if you are a teacher, tutor or parent.

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