A summation is a mathematical operation that adds up a series of terms. It is often denoted by the symbol ∑, where the lower and upper limits indicate the starting and ending values of the index variable.
Finding summation on a ti-84 calculator can be done in two ways: using the sum(
function or using the nDeriv(
function. In this article, we will explain both methods with examples.
Using the sum( function
The sum(
function is a built-in function on the ti-84 calculator that can find the sum of a list of values or a sequence of terms. For example, suppose we want to find the sum of the first 10 natural numbers.
To find the summation using the sum(
function, follow these steps:
- Press the
ON
button to turn on the calculator. - Press the
2ND
button and then press theLIST
button to access the list menu. - Scroll over to the
MATH
option and scroll down to the option5:sum(
and pressENTER
to select it. - Enter the list of values or the sequence of terms separated by commas. For our example, we would enter
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
. - Press the
)
button to close the parentheses and pressENTER
to calculate the summation.
The calculator will display the summation as 55
. This means that the sum of the first 10 natural numbers is 55.
Using the nDeriv( function
The nDeriv(
function is a built-in function on the ti-84 calculator that can find the numerical value of the derivative of any function at any point.
To find the summation using the nDeriv(
function, follow these steps:
- Press the
ON
button to turn on the calculator. - Press the
MATH
button and scroll down to the option8:nDeriv(
and pressENTER
to select it. - Enter the function, the variable, and the value of the point separated by commas. For our example, we would enter
X^2,X,n
. - Press the
)
button to close the parentheses and press theSTO>
button to store the result in a variable. For our example, we would pressSTO>Y
. - Press the
2ND
button and then press theQUIT
button to exit the function. - Press the
2ND
button and then press the0
button to access the catalog of functions. - Scroll down until you see the
limit(
function and pressENTER
to select it. - Enter the expression, the variable, and the value of the limit separated by commas. For our example, we would enter
(Y(n+0.001)-Y(n-0.001))/(0.002),n,n
. - Press the
)
button to close the parentheses and pressENTER
to calculate the limit. - Press the
)
button to close the parentheses and press the/
button to divide the result by 2.
The calculator will display the summation as n^3/3 + n^2/2 + n/6
. This means that the sum of the squares of the integers from 1 to n is equal to this expression.
Conclusion
In this article, we learned how to find summation on a ti-84 calculator using two methods: using the sum(
function and using the nDeriv(
function. Summation is useful for finding the total of a series of terms or a sequence of values. We hope this article was helpful and informative. For more information on summation and other algebra concepts, you can check out this website.