The TI-83 has a wonderful statistics package, which eliminates the requirement of using statistical tables in order to make calculations. Since we do not teach the use of the tables it is NECESSARY for you to have this calculator for MAT 130. Some of the nicest features of the TI-83 for this class include:

1. The ability to calculate mean, median, range, and standard deviation from a list
2. The ability to make histograms from a list
3. The ability to calculate WEIGHTED mean and standard deviation from a WEIGHTED LIST.
4. The ability to do "counting calculations" (permutations, combinations, factorials)
5. The ability to calculate binomial probability distributions easily
6. The ability to find probabilities and percentiles for normal distributions
7. The ability to find confidence intervals and perform hypothesis tests.

While the calculator can do many of these operations for you, the difficulty lies in interpreting the results, and being able to use the statistics the calculator gives you.

This page will give a VERY brief introduction to the first three uses listed above – for any of the other uses, consult your manual or your instructor.

1. To obtain statistics from a sample, you need to enter the sample results in a list.

To begin making lists, you will need to ONE TIME enter [STAT] option 5:SetUpEditor

Once you have done this, you may then go to [STAT] option 1:Edit

Enter your data into one of the lists, say L1, pressing [ENTER] after each data item.

Once the data is entered, go to [STAT], arrow over to (CALC) and choose option

1:1-Var Stats, followed by [2^nd] [ L1] and then [ENTER]

This will then produce a screen with the mean, median, standard deviation, and high

and low data values.

2. To make a histogram of the data entered in a list, you will need to enter the data in a list, say L1, first.

Then choose [2^nd] [STATPLOT] option 1: Plot 1...

In the following screen highlight [ON], the bar chart picture, and enter the data list [2^nd] [L1] under Xlist:, leave Freq : 1

Now go to [WINDOW] and choose Xmin to be the smallest data value, Xmax to be at least as large as the largest data value, and Xscl to be the width of each frequency class.

Ymin should be 0, Ymax should be at least as large as your largest frequency (usually 15 works well), and Yscl can be your choice. Leave Xres = 1

Now press [GRAPH]

You may also [TRACE] the histogram to see how many values lie in each class

3. To calculate a WEIGHTED mean and standard deviation, you need to have a data list, and a list of weights corresponding to each data element in the list.