Calculator User Manual
Chapter 1: Operating the TI
-
86
29
01OPER.DOC TI-86, Chap 1, US English Bob Fedorisko Revised: 02/13/01 2:18 PM Printed: 02/13/01 2:59 PM Page 29 of 2201OPER.DOC TI-86, Chap 1, US English Bob Fedorisko Revised: 02/13/01 2:18 PM Printed: 02/13/01 2:59 PM Page 29 of 22
Retrieving Multiple Entries
To store two or more expressions or instructions together to
ENTRY
, enter them on one
line, separating each from the other with a colon, and then press
b
. Upon execution,
the entire group is stored in
ENTRY
. The example below shows one of many ways you can
manipulate this feature to avoid tedious manual re-entry.
Use trial and error to find the radius
of a circle with an area of 200 square
centimeters. Store
8
to
r
as your first
guess, then execute
p
r
2
.
8
X
-
n
ã
R
ä
-
[
:
]
-
~
ã
R
ä
1
1
I
b
Retrieve
8¶r:
p
r
2
and insert
7.958
as a
new guess. Continue guessing to
approach the answer of
200
.
-
¢
-
!
7
-
p
`
958
b
Clearing the ENTRY Storage Area
To clear all data from the
ENTRY
storage area, begin on a blank line on the home screen,
select
ClrEnt
from the
MEM
menu (press
-
™
*
), and then press
b
.
Retrieving the Last Answer
When an expression is evaluated successfully on the home screen or in a program, the TI
-
86
stores the answer to a built-in variable called
Ans
(last answer).
Ans
may be a real or
complex number, list, vector, matrix, or string. When you turn off the TI
-
86, the value in
Ans
is retained in memory.
Consecutively entered entries
separated by colons (page 26
)
are stored as one entry.
The formula for finding the
area of a circle is
A=
p
r
2
.
The equation solver (Chapter
15) is another tool with which
you can perform this task.