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Window Settings

The viewing window is the part of the coordinate plane that will be visible on your graphing calculator screen. 

win1

win2

Remember that you are only seeing a "portion" of an entire graph in your viewing window.  Think of your calculator view screen as a small magnifying glass that lets you see a PART of the entire graph.

Notice that the calculator viewing window at the left shows only a small 3x3 grid section of the entire parabola.  The graph paper view shows a larger portion of the parabola graph.   Also notice that the calculator view shows a somewhat "wider" looking parabola.  The window's aspect ratio (affecting the actual x and y scales) is 3:2 (not 1:1).  The normal window is a rectangle, not a square.                      

You need to understand how the viewing window is set up and how to control its size.

win3

The WINDOW key allows you to control the viewing window.

The default window (also obtained with ZOOM #6 ZStandard) is the 10 x 10 window shown at the left.

 

Xmin = minimum value displayed on the x-axis
Xmax = maximum value displayed on the x-axis
Xscl = distance between the tick marks on the x-axis
Ymin = minimum value displayed on the y-axis
Ymax = maximum value displayed on the y-axis
Yscl = distance between the tick marks on the y-axis
Xres = pixel resolution.  Xres = 1 means that functions are evaluated and graphed at every pixel on the x-axis.

Xmin must be less than Xmax

Ymin must be less than Ymax


Setting
set Xscl =0 and Yscl = 0
will turn the tick marks off.

To change window settings on the WINDOW screen:
     -- use your up or down arrows to move to the item to be changed
     -- enter the new value (which clears the original value)
     -- arrow down or hit ENTER.

 

Format Settings (2nd ZOOM)

win4

... sets cursor coordinates to rectangular or polar coordinates
... sets coordinates display on or off
... sets grid on or off (GridOn shows dotted background screen)
... sets axes on or off
... sets axes label on or off (labels axes, but not ON the axes)
... sets expression display on or off   
  

 

What is the  physical layout of the TI-83+/84+ view screen
in terms of pixels?

win5

Pixels are the small cells that light up when you graph.  If you turn your screen very dark (hit 2nd up arrow repeatedly) you will see the actual pixels in the screen display.

The default viewing window is set up in a 3:2 aspect ratio.  The window is NOT a square.

Because of these set pixels, the "nicest" viewing windows have Xmin and Xmax values that differ by a multiple of 47.

   


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