Hacksar

If you are in any sort of math or science course, chances are, you are allowed to use a graphing calculator to help you. One of the best graphing calculators out there is the TI-89, capable of doing – well… anything. Whether it’s simple computations like 2+2 or solving complex three-dimensional differential surfaces, the TI-89 can do it. Many students swear by it, and if you don’t you may want to convert and become a fellow lover of the calculator.

However, many times, it seems like more effort to reach all the way to your backpack and pull out the TI-89… but you can’t exactly solve that fourth-order, seven-variable system of equations in your head and you surely don’t want to do it on paper… that’s where an emulator comes in handy. An emulator is basically the calculator, except it runs on your computer. Keep reading for the info on how to get this incredible emulator up and running on your computer.

1. Go to the VirtualTI emulator website and download the TI-89 emulator.
2. Run the self-extracting EXE and put it wherever you want. It will make a folder that will have the emulator and all the necessary files.
3. To run the emulator, simply navigate to the folder that you just extracted and run vti.exe. This will load the emulator and you will see… a TI-89 on your screen.
4. You can click on the buttons with your mouse, or you can use the keyboard shortcuts. Numbers are numbers, the mathematical operators on the number pad correspond to their operators, the F keys correspond to the F keys, etc.
5. You can also right click anywhere on the emulator to see all the different options, such as change emulation speed (for complex, time-consuming computations), or take a screenshot, etc.
6. The file vti.txt is the readme file and contains all of the keyboard shortcuts. This is useful if you are like me and try to avoid using the mouse if at all possible.

Congratulations, you now have a fully functional TI-89 on your computer. It can do everything that your regular TI-89 can do, and possibly more (power-wise) since you can remove the computation speed limit. Just keep in mind that you should use this only if you own a real TI-89. (This goes for all sorts of emulators.)

Check back soon for a guide on the best tips and tricks on how to use a TI-89 that many people are unaware exist, and will definately make your life much easier.

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