Chapter 5. Expanding your graphing skills
This chapter covers
- Working with Parametric, Polar, and Sequence graphing modes
- Drawing diagrams and annotating graphs
- Saving and restoring graph snapshots and graph settings
Graphing is one of the key features of your graphing calculator; chapter 3 pointed out that it’s so important that it’s half of the device’s name. In that chapter, we worked with normal Cartesian graphing, where you visualize equations like y = x2+1. In this chapter, you’ll see many of the advanced graphing features your calculator includes, such as new graphing modes and annotating graphs with drawings.
Why would you want to graph in other schemes than Cartesian graphing, anyway? The short answer is that there are many functions and graphs that you can’t represent in the form y = f(x), which defines the vertical position (y) of each point in the graph by passing its horizontal position (x) through a function. Figure 5.1 shows the four different types of graph coordinate systems that your calculator can work with.