<p>Does the Calc BC test require a graphing calculator? I am much more comfortable with my casio scientific and absolutely hate my TI-84+. Do any of the questions require a graphing calculator or can everything be done without one?</p>
<p>You need a graphing calculator for the test. That being said, you are allowed to bring in two calculators to the test, so you can bring both calculators in (I presume the Casio scientific is on the list of approved calculators).</p>
<p>That way, you can use the Casio on the problems that don’t require the graphing and additional features, and use the TI-84+ for everything else.</p>
<p>So there are problems that require the use of a graphing calculator and cannot feasibly be solved within the time limits without the graphing calculator?</p>
<p>Yup.</p>
<p>Here are some examples:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>A question working with areas and/or volumes gives a region formed by two curves. The curves don’t intersect at nice clean numbers. You could theoretically guess-and-check the intersection points, but not all of these points are points that can be found using algebraic means.</p></li>
<li><p>Some of the functions that you’re asked to find the definite integral of are functions whose antiderivatives you don’t know. I have no idea how you would do this without a calculator that has some kind of numerical integration function on it (and last I checked, most scientific calculators don’t have these).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Those are the two biggies that I can think of, and they both occur on a fairly regular basis on the Free Response exam. The latter example also happens somewhat often on the MC (at least from the years that we can see questions for).</p>
<p>There are computations where you cannot solve for by hand. Hence, a calculator is needed. (e.g. are you able to calculate Sin(11)? or Tan (0.34)? or e^(2.7)?)</p>
<p>And then there are computations where a graphing calculator will only take 20 seconds where as itll take a few minutes by hand. (area between 2 curves…)</p>
<p>edit: MathProf gave better response while I was typing slowly ;-)</p>
<p><a href=“e.g.%20are%20you%20able%20to%20calculate%20Sin(11)?%20or%20Tan%20(0.34)?%20or%20e%5E(2.7)?”>quote</a>
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Real men expand them using Taylor series and solve accordingly. xD.</p>
<p>Just kidding.</p>
<p>lol Xav :)</p>
<p>lol at Xav as well =p</p>
<p>The Casio scientific that I have can solve definite integrals. It is really an amazing calculator…I’ll send a link so you can see if it is a wise replacement for a TI…</p>
<p><a href=“http://www%5B/url%5D”>http://www</a>. casio .com/products/Calculators<em>%26</em>Dictionaries/Scientific<em>%26</em>Financial/FX-115ES/</p>
<p>It looks like an impressive scientific, but what happens when you want to find the area of one petal of a rose curve and its on the calculator part and you can either figure out your upper and lower limits by hand, or just graph it. You would have to graph this by hand to make sure you didn’t miss any of the visual intersections, which is extremely time consuming. </p>
<p>My suggestion is to buy or borrow a TI-89.</p>
<p>And does it find INdefinite integrals? </p>
<p>…semi-related question. I could go look it up, but while we’re here: is there both a non-calculator and calculator free response?</p>
<p>Yeah, 3 are non calc and 3 are calc.</p>
<p>okay thanks</p>
<p>@Ren and U.Va: I aim to please.</p>
<p>@Cicero: I have that exact same Calculator. It’s like God’s gift to math students. It does almost everything a graphing calc does except graph, so you can use it in most tests. It’s great. </p>
<p>Btw U.Va finding the area of a petal rose is easy if you are smart about it.</p>
<p>Say you have r = sin 4x</p>
<p>So, you have 8 roses. Find the area of one?</p>
<p>Just integrate from 0 to 2pi, then divide by 8. I always do that because it’s so much simpler. xD </p>
<p>On a side note, are you allowed to bring the Casio? It wasn’t on the list of Calculators, so I thought you couldn’t?</p>
<p>@Xav:</p>
<p>That’s a good point. I had figured that more limited calculators would be allowed.</p>
<p>Turns out that they’re NOT:</p>
<p><a href=“Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board”>Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board;
<p>On page 14, towards the bottom of the page, where it says “Technology Restrictions on the Exams”, it says (emphasis mine):</p>
<p>“Nongraphing scientific calculators, computers, devices with a QWERTY keyboard, and pen-input/stylus-driven devices or electronic writing pads are not permitted for use on the AP Calculus Exams.”</p>
<p>@Xav
whoaaaa super cool!
i knew i loved CC, you find out such interesting things :)</p>
<p>I think that calculators should simply just be disallowed in AP calculus, along with introducing a new course called: “AP calculators”.</p>
<p>Half-joking aside, what do people learn by answering questions that require a calculator to do a definite integral? My answer: they learn how to use a TI-XX.</p>
<p>Other opinions?</p>
<p>yes, and they learn how they’re going to find a definite integral if they ever have to in “real life” because who in the world does stuff like that by hand when a computer will do it for you with less chance of error lol</p>
<p>^ Agreed.</p>
<p>You only ever need to them by hand if the calculator hasn’t been programmed to do so. (A function turns out to be more elementary than expected?) Albeit, I think the AP Calculus BC exam could be harder (though I can’t really say since I haven’t taken the real one yet xD). I asked some kid to integrate sin (x^.5) and he said it was unintegrateable. I was rather disappointed.</p>
<p>does anyone wanna help me out on polar graphs?
i dont know the upp/lower limits of those graphs.</p>
<p>here’s an example i dont understand
Find the area of inside the smaller loop of the limacon r=1 +2 cos (@)
@= theta
how do i approach this, i mean whats the 2 limits…?
o.o</p>
<p>Wow that is a shame. That casio calc is my life lol. I just bought the TI-89 Titanium.</p>