Root function on the TI-89

[Dan Solis]

I have two TI-89 calculators and they do not have the "root" function that is available on the TI-89 Platinum.  My version of the ROM is 2.00, and the version of the "Advanced Mathematics Software" is 2.05.  If I update the ROM to the latest version will I get the "root" function, or is it only available on the Platinum version?

Thanks,

Dan

[Lionel Debroux]

Hi Dan,

> I have two TI-89 calculators and they do not have the "root" function
> that is available on the TI-89 Platinum.

Indeed.

> My version of the ROM is 2.00, and the version of the "Advanced
> Mathematics Software" is 2.05. If I update the ROM to the latest
> version will I get the "root" function, or is it only available on the
> Platinum version?

Nope, the root( function and several others are only provided by AMS
3.10, which was provided by TI only for the 89 _Titanium_ and V200.
Technically, it's possible to patch the older OS to add support for new
EStack tags and TI-Basic built-in functions, but there are easier things
to patch...

For the 89, AMS 2.08 and 2.09 bring fairly little in the way of new
useful functionality (the unreliable "clack" and slow apps desktop
aren't useful IMO ^^), and their biggest drawback is that - in its
pristine form, I mean - the OS eats up one more Flash sector (only
taking ~100 bytes and IIRC ~1 KB on it respectively), reducing the
amount of memory available for user FlashApps and archive by 64 KB.
My own 89 HW2 keeps running AMS 2.05 :)


Bye,
Lionel.

[Travis Evans]

On 2019-05-21 01:53, 'Lionel Debroux' via ticalc.org-general wrote:

For the 89, AMS 2.08 and 2.09 bring fairly little in the way of new
useful functionality (the unreliable "clack" and slow apps desktop
aren't useful IMO ^^), and their biggest drawback is that - in its
pristine form, I mean - the OS eats up one more Flash sector (only
taking ~100 bytes and IIRC ~1 KB on it respectively), reducing the
amount of memory available for user FlashApps and archive by 64 KB.
My own 89 HW2 keeps running AMS 2.05 :)

To be fair, I got quite a bit of use out of that clock function back in the day, especially in programs (it was useful for PDA- or logging-type uses, for instance). I don't really recall having reliability issues with it so long as I didn't leave the AAA batteries out for extended periods of time (I believe the clock does stop when under that condition, and on the Titanium it's even worse because the time and date are lost altogether).

But indeed, if you don't need that sort of thing, AMS 2.08 and 2.09 don't have much going for them.

-- 
Travis Evans
The ticalc.org Project
http://www.ticalc.org/

[jalind]

Dan,

First . . . it's a TI-89 Titanium; I only wish it were real Platinium and I'd be melting it down to sell it ;-)

I'm a bit surprised by this question as there's an (obvious ??) alternative to the "Root" function. The root of a number can be expressed as a fraction. The square root of some number, x, is x^(1/2) and its cube root is x^(1/3). You can use any value you want to provided it returns a number within the absolute range of the largest and smallest (non-zero) numbers the calculator can represent.

• Values > 1 are "powers"
• Raising a number to the first power (i.e. 1) returns the number itself (x^1 = x)
• Fractional values < 1 and > 0 are "roots"; there may be more than one root depending on the range allowed! 4^(1/2) = 2, or -2
• Raising a positive number to 0 always equals 1, and a negative one to 0 always equals -1 (23^0 = 1; - 47^0 = -1)
• Raising zero to any power greater than zero is zero (0^y = 0, y > 0)
• Raising zero to zero or a negative number is undefined (0^y = undefined; if y <= 0; a negative number causes division by zero)
• Negative values are the arithmetic inverse of the power or root: 3^-2 = 1/(3^2) = 1/9, and 64^(-1/3) = 1/4

I've found using "^" for powers and roots much easier for me than using the "Diamond-->9" shortcut and entering it in the form of  "(x,root)".

John

[d...@eaglevista.us]

Thanks, John.  I appreciate the review.  I used to know this stuff 50 years ago when I was taking algebra, but the details have become hazy over time.  Use it or lose it—and I haven’t been using it.

 

Thanks,

Dan

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[jalind]

On Tuesday, August 13, 2019 at 10:55:02 AM UTC-4, d...@eaglevista.us wrote:

Thanks, John.  I appreciate the review.  I used to know this stuff 50 years ago when I was taking algebra, but the details have become hazy over time.  Use it or lose it—and I haven’t been using it.

 

Thanks,

Dan

  

Dan,

I used to be able to rattle off dozens of trig identities, some of them obscure - as I used them for simplifying integrals and other equations using them. Not so any more beyond several of the most common - was also fairly good at factoring polynomials - pretty rusty now. ;-)

Found a "Version 2, Rev C" PDF of the TI-89/92 Guidebook. If you Google for it you can find them. TI doesn't have the TI-89/92 Guidebook for download. These older manual PDFs are often found in a University Math Dept. online archive. The one I read was in Oregon State Univ's Math Dept. You can download and save a PDF to your computer easily through a browser, and this one was searchable for text using Adobe Reader. Looked for a "root" function using Adobe Reader's text search. Indeed, it doesn't (didn't) exist as of the version of the manual: Version 2.0 Rev C dated 2002 from the year range and PDF note found on the cover. I don't know what ROM version it covers inside the TI-89. The last one for the TI-89 was apparently 2.09 in March 2003.

If you want a copy of the PDF guide, I can email you one; it's about 6MB. Reluctant to publicly post a link to it as I've seen what can happen when the entire universe starts downloading something quietly stashed away on a university web site. The math dept discovers massive bandwidth consumption from outside the university (which costs them money), all leading to a file download, and deletes the file (a form of The Tragedy of the Commons). Blog authors have been known to generate this response with links to things elsewhere.

There are two user defined function examples shown on page 97 at the very beginning of Chapter 5's section on Creating and Evaluating User Defined Functions: "cube(x)" and "xroot(x,y)". Very straightforward - basically what I showed using the "^" operator. You can define your own function and with the calculator's constant memory feature it will always be there unless you remove both the AAA cells and the 3V backup coin cell, or let both run completely down.

John