Reciprocals on Your Computer's Calculator

$Last Class$ $Class Home$ $Class Table$ $Next Class$

Reciprocal's on Your Computer's Calculator

Your Computer's Calculator

By now you should be familiar with many of the calculator's features. You should also be familiar with many mathematical concepts.

$calculator$

No points have been marked on this page for BREAKs. Decide for yourself when to break.
On this page the CALCULATOR Button links you a picture so that you may see the placement of the calculator keys as you review their use.
Keep both notes open and your calculator open.

The Reciprocal of A Number

Please use your computer's calculator to compute the reciprocal of a number.

Example #1: Computing the Reciprocal of Five Type 5 on the calculator screen. Press [1/x], the reciprocal key to compute the reciprocal of five. The result is .2, two-tenths, one-fifth.

In the above example, the reciprocal of 5 was found to be 1/5, .2. What is the reciprocal of this reciprocal? What is 1/1/5?

$calculator$

Example #2: The Reciprocal of The Reciprocal

Earlier the reciprocal of 5 was found to be .2.
If it is not there now, type .2 on the screen.
Press [1/x] to compute its reciprocal.
The result is 5.

The Reciprocal of A Number- The Bigger Picture

	The reciprocal of 10, 10-to-the-negative-first-power, 1/10, is listed with other powers of 10. The reciprocal of 5, 1/5 or .2, is listed above. A graph of the reciprocal includes these examples and will summarize in picture form the reciprocal of a number. This picture draws the graph. USE REFRESH OR RELOAD ON YOUR BROWSER TO MAKE THE ANIMATION MOVE..

	True statements include: The reciprocal of a positive is positive. The reciprocal of a negative is negative. There is no reciprocal of zero, since division by zero is undefined. If the reciprocal of zero did existed, it would have to be infinitely large. The smaller the number, the larger the reciprocal. The larger the number, the samller the reciprocal.

The Reciprocal in Summary-

"A Number Raised to Negative First Power Is That Number's Reciprocal, for all nonzero numbers."

Return to Order of Operations

Continue on to the next page or return to page 7 of FINALLY PLEASE READILY EXCUSE MY DEAR AUNT SALLY, Lesson c80.

$Last Class$ $Class Home$ $Class Table$ $Next Class$

This page is brought to you by MATHEMATICAL CONCEPTS, inc., publishers of MATH SPOKEN HERE!, ISBN: 0-9623593-5-1.

You are hereby granted permission to make ONE printed copy of this page and its picture(s) for your PERSONAL and not-for-profit use. YOU MAY NOT MAKE ANY ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THIS PAGE, ITS PICTURE(S), ITS SOUND CLIP(S), OR ITS ANIMATED GIFS WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM: classes@mathnstuff.com or by mail to the address below.