TI 83 BASIC Tutorial

Chapter 1

Introduction to your TI 83

This is a TI 83:

Section 1: About the TI-83

What's under the hood?

Your TI-83 comes equiped with:

CPU (Central Processing Unit)

Zilog Z80 running at 6 MHz Translation: This is the "Brain" of your calculator

RAM (Random Access Memory)

27.3K Translation: This is the "Memory" of your calculator. It can store 27300 charactors (letters, numbers).

OS (Operating System)

EOS (Equation Operating System) Translation: This is the interface to you, and is stored in your calculator's ROM. TI BASIC is part of the EOS.

Screen (Output Device)

8x16 Charactors (62x94 pixels GRAPHING MODE) Translation: The screen is the output device that tells you what the calculators is doing, and allows you to see what you are inputing to the calculator.

Keyboard

Translation: Input device.

Section 2: Power up

Turning ON your TI-83

This information can be found in "Getting Started" and Chapter 1, in yourmanual

The Wrong Way: Telling it how much you love it.

The Right Way On the left corner of the calculator is the on key. Press it.

Section 3:Your first steps

It's Alive, Alive...

You will see a cursor. To access many item, press it's key. If whay you want is in yellow, press [2ND] and then press the item. To access any of the charactors in green then press [ALPHA] and the key. To put in to alpha lock press [2ND] [ALPHA].

Normal 2nd Alpha

If you get a menu, use the arrow keys to navigate the menus. To exit a menu withoutselecting an item, press [CLEAR]. To select an item: Highlight it and press [ENTER].

Setting the calculator up

No, don't try to match make your calculator to another!

If this is the first time you have used your calculator, and/or you have no programs in memory, then you should clear the memory.Below is the how to guide for this operation:

  1. Press [2ND] then [MEM] (it is located on [+])
  2. To check if there is any programs: select CHECKRAM.
  3. That's it.

Setting the Contrast

If you see nothing, you may need to set the contrast. To do so press [2ND] and then the UP key until you see the cursor.

Time to move on...

So what did you think? Please E-mail me your suggestions (good or bad) to jwtatay@wi.rr.com.

With this first lesson mastered, you may move on to Chapter 2.
Or you may go back to the table of contents.