Learn Tips for the S.A.T
Do you have any idea how to use this? Well, you get to use it on the ACT or the SAT, and there’s all sorts of free applications that you can download that are gonna help you out. So, right now, I’m just gonna let you know how you can use this to solve simultaneous equations, systems of equations, or even using the quadratic formula. It’s gonna be real quick, real easy and this is gonna do all the work for you. If you watch any of the Algebra 2 episodes, you know, that to solve systems you can use systems by graphic or you can do linear combination or you can do substitution or matrices. Well, a real easy way to bypass all of that is to download this application, it’s called polyxymil meaning simultaneous solutions, it’s what it’s gonna solve by just hit enter, and get into this. And the second one is simultaneous equations solver. So I’m gonna go right there and let’s pretend I have this equation, x + y = 200 and 8x + 4y = 1304. It’s an easy equation to solve but it’s even easier with the calculator. I put in the number of equations I have. I have two. How many unknowns do I have? I have two. Then it gives me a matrix. I put in the coefficient matrix over here on the left and I put on my constant matrix here. So, it’s one x, one y equals 200. Eight x, four y equals 1304. The cool thing is this buttons now have new functions and they tell you the new functions just by this writing up here. So if I wanna solve this matrix, I now hit the graph button coz now it’s turned into the solve button. It takes a minute for the calculator to think but then it gets the answer, 126 is x and x2 which was y for us is 74. And that's it, I’m done. If you have a 3 by 3 matrix or a 4 by 4, I have to do is enter all that in here and it does all of it for you. Another really cool thing about this application is you can solve a quadratic equation. That’s the very first option, poly root finder. So you hit enter and you have to enter the degree of your polynomial. So a quadratic is a second degree. Then you just enter in your a value, your b value, and your c value which they call a2, a1, and a subzero and you can see where they get that from. Again the graph button is to solve. So I just hit that, gives me my answer right away. So if you know how to use the quadratic formula and you just don’t have the time, this is the great thing to do. If you don’t know how to use the quadratic formula, you really should learn that too. But this is a quick way to get through all those hard problems on the ACT and SAT. And you get to use this, the calculator and the applications when you take any of those standardized test, so why not? Most of my students use this as a paper weight or maybe they just use it to add and subtract. But look what it can do and that was just one application that you can download for free and use on the ACT and SAT. There’s tons of applications you can use that are gonna help you all the time. Formulas, graphing, remembering things, even study cards. So make use of this, it’s more than a paper weight and it does more than add and subtract. It’s actually even something you can throw.