First click in the blank notepad to makes sure the cursor is flashing.
Type Plut|Stn|x], {x, -2a, 2a]]
[Note] The initial letter of any function or command must be typed in upper case and the variable
must be enclosed by square brackest, such as: Plot[ ], , ] [x Sin , ] [x Cos , ] [x Abs and ]. [x Tan
The range of x-values must be defined and enclosed by curly brackets, such as: {x, -2n, 2n]. You
can insert the character by clicking on it on the Classroom Assistant. Notice that when you point
to a character such as on the Classroom Assistant that it also shows you the keys to type to enter
that character. In this case you could enter by pressing the Esc key, p, and Esc. For those who
are reasonably good typists it is worth memorizing these key strokes for the more commonly used
characters.
To get the result, you either press Shift + Enter on your keyboard, or use your mouse to click Enter on
the Classroom Assistant panel. The graph will be shown as below.
Example 2. Plot the graph of 3 2 ) (
2
= x x x f over the interval ] 5 , 5 [
Press Enter on your keyboard to exit the previous work. Then you start to type when the cursor is
flashing.
Type Plut|x
2
- 2x - 3, {x, -5, 5]]
[Note] To type in the term x
2
in the notebook, you either use your keyboard to enter keys x, Ctrl
6, 2, right arrow, or use your mouse to click the symbol of exponent on the Classroom Assistant
panel.
To get the result, you do the same thing as you did in Example 1 --Using the mouse to click Enter on the
Classroom Assistant panel. The graph will be shown as
-6 -4 -2 2 4 6
-1.0
-0.5
0.5
1.0
5
Example 3. Plot the graph of
2
1
) (
=
x
x f over the interval ] 5 , 1 [
Click Enter to exit the previous work and make sure the cursor is flashing.
Type Plut|
1
x-2
, {x, -1, 5]]
[Note] In this example you learn how to enter fractions. To type in the term
1
x-2
, you either use the
symbol for fraction from the Classroom Assistant, or press Ctrl / from your keyboard. After
completing the denominator press the right arrow key to get back to the base line of type.
The graph should look like
-4 -2 2 4
5
10
15
20
25
30
-1 1 2 3 4 5
-3
-2
-1
1
2
3
6
In the last part of this lesson you will learn how to type texts inside a graph box. Lets revisit Example 2.
Example 2. Plot the graph of 3 2 ) (
2
= x x x f over the interval ] 5 , 5 [
Plut|x
2
- 2x -3, {x, -5, 5]]
To add texts to the graph box, you need to right-click on the graph and a short menu pops up. On the
menu you scroll your mouse to Drawing Tools and click. A small panel 2D Drawing will drop into
your window
At the bottom of the 2D Drawing panel, there are two symbols and .
will let you type in texts in a normal form and let you type in texts in mathematical form.
-4 -2 2 4
5
10
15
20
25
30
8
First click on . The cursor will change. You click it on the graph at an appropriate place you want to
type in your texts. For instance you can type in It is a parabola ! For these words, you can also
change their sizes and fonts using the Format command located at the top of your screen.
Clicking on Format opens a menu that allows you to change many aspects of the text including font
size, face, color, etc.
Next lets click on to add y = x
2
-2x -S to the graph. Remember to press Ctrl 6 when typing
in the term of x
2
just like what we did before. The Format commands can also be used to change the
characteristics of this text. At last, click on the arrow on the 2D Drawing panel.
You can pull out an arrow pointing from the text y = x
2
- 2x - S to the curve. The result looks like
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y = x
2
- 2 x - 3
It is a parabola !
-4 -2 2 4
5
10
15
20
25
30