Calculator Operations:

This chapter provides the student a chance to reacquaint himself along with primary calculator operations.

The teaching of the "mechanics of mathematics" (division, logarithms, multiplication, etc.) within recent years has focused more on the skills of using a calculator than on the pure principles of the primary subject material.  Along with the decreased cost of hand calculators, virtually each person owns, or has access to, a calculator.  A nuclear plant operator would be wise to learn how to use most of the compute available today. Such information will help the operator make fast decisions while circumstances arise for the need of a "quick calculation" of flow rate or some other parameter.

Several calculators are available on the market today, and every one is a little different. For the reasons of this module, a scientific calculator will be required. The Texas Instruments scientific calculator TI-30 will be used for the examples in this module. Many calculators work on the same principles, other than some do not. Some calculators operate on a programming principle such as Hewlett-Packard (HP). An HP calculator does not use an equivalent key.  To perform a mathematical operation, a first number is inserted, the ENTER key is pressed then the second number is inserted and after that the mathematical function key is pressed.  The output will be displayed.  If a various calculator is used, the student will required to refer to the reference manual for his or her calculator.

The subsequent section will review the common use function keys on a TI-30 calculator. In every subsequent chapter of this module, an applicable calculator operation will be addressed.