Lesson 2

Part III (Intro to Main and the Soft Keyboard, cont'd)

In this part, you will learn another way to store values, how to use the one finger toolbar button, change base and change the form in which your numbers display. For example, always show results as a decimal. Or, you may want to work with angles in degrees instead of radians. To change most settings we can use the Basic Format dialog box or just click the status bar.

We usually call these format settings “mode settings”. Mode settings control how the ClassPad Manager handles math and other settings.

Important: What are your ClassPad’s mode settings? Your status bar (along the bottom of this window) might say: Alg Standard Real Rad

This means your ClassPad is set to:

1. Basic Format Settings

4342345

2. Status Bar and One Line at a Time

drawing a triangle

3. Changing Base

What does “base” mean? It has to do with place value. Well, as you know, 234=2*100+3*10+4. This can also be written as 234=2*102+3*101+4*100 (note that any # raised to the 0 power equals 1 except 00).

We work in base 10, but computers often work in base 2 or base 16. Base 2 is called binary and base 16 is called hexadecimal. For example, 5 in base 2 is 101=1*22+0*21+20. There are also many other bases that are common. You could really write a number in any base you want to!

For now, we will experiment with base 2 (binary) only. You may someday find this useful! It is definitely fun to think in a different base.

Part III


Practice Exercises

  1. Open the Main application and select Edit/Clear All. Notice the status bar changed to show all modes again (no longer in Bin mode). This is a good thing!
  2. A flea traveled 3.76 yards on the first day of its journey, 2.57 yards on the second and 1.99 yards on the last day. Using the Main application, calculate the total distance traveled.
  3. To the nearest tenth, how far did the flea travel? Hint: Change your mode setting to Fix 1 and re-execute line one to display a decimal.
  4. Get a screen capture and paste it into your Lesson2 document (under a title of PART III).
  5. Complex number and real number results are sometimes different. “Complex” numbers occur when there is a negative under a square root.
  6. Using 2D math, try to evaluate . We get an error because is undefined in the real mode (notice Real shows in your status bar). If square roots are new to you, be patient, you will learn about them someday. For now, just experiment with the ClassPad.
  7. Click Real in the status bar to toggle to Cplx or open the Basic Format dialog box and check the box for Complex Format. Re-evaluate . So, you see = i.[i is often called the imaginary unit. “imaginary” in this sense does NOT mean non-existent; it means not a real number (not on the real number line).]
  8. Get a screen capture. Please add two blank spaces following the last screen capture and then paste this one.
  9. Ok, time to explore the soft keyboard. Try to find two music note symbols within the soft keyboard (they look like: ).

    [Hint: You will find them by looking in one of the pages that appear when you click a lower button on the abc page! Remember to click the back arrow button to get back and the down arrows on the right to see more of a page.]
  10. Click the symbols when you find them so that they show in your window. Get a screen capture. Add two blank spaces following the second screen capture and then paste this one.

Part IV

Reflection Exercises

You have just completed the second lesson in ClassPad 101, great! Learning terminology is not as much fun as entering things into the ClassPad, but learning the terminology is important so that we can talk in a technical way! Try to review pages 2 and 3 until you are comfortable with each term. Or, you can print them so that you can refer to them quickly as needed.

Please take a few moments to copy and paste the following three questions at the end of your Lesson2 document and answer them.

  1. Approximately how long did it take you to complete this lesson?
  2. Which activity did you enjoy the most?
  3. Did you find any part of this activity difficult to follow? If so, which part? Also, how did you overcome the difficulty?

Assessment 2: Introduction to the ClassPad Manager Software