Education Technology

Solution 11752: Calculating Derivatives on the TI-83 Plus Family of Graphing Calculators. 

How can I calculate derivatives on the TI-83 Plus family of graphing calculators?

Please Note: The TI-83 Plus family of graphing calculators can only calculate numeric derivatives.

For Example: Find the numeric derivative of f(x)=x² at x=2

1) Press the [MATH] key.
2) Press [Down Arrow] until 8:nDeriv( is selected and press [ENTER].
3) Press [X,T,θ,n] [x²] [,] [X,T,θ,n] [,] [2] [)] [ENTER].

Additional Note: The TI-83 Plus family of graphing calculators do not have symbolic manipulation capabilities. They cannot find the symbolic derivative of a function. For a list of TI graphing calculators that have the Computer Algebraic System (CAS) please refer to KB#24631.

Please see the TI-83 Plus Family guidebooks for additional information.