Getting Started with Desmos
- Getting started with Desmos. If you've never used Desmos before, or if math isn't your strongest subject and you're gonna lean heavily on the power of Desmos as you prepare for the test, this is the perfect place for you to begin.
Our goal isn't to learn every feature Desmos offers. It's simply to get comfortable with the calculator itself. We'll take a quick tour of the screen and then learn the handful of operations you'll use most often. Before we do anything else, let's look at the calculator itself.
The screen is split into two parts. On the left is the expression list. This is where everything you type goes. On the right is the graph window where equations, points, and graphs appear. At the bottom left, you'll find access to the keypad.
That's where your fractions, roots, exponents, absolute value, and most of the symbols you'll need live. At the top of the expression list is the plus button. That gives you access to tools like f(x) expressions and tables. And on the graph itself, you'll see zoom controls and a home button that resets the view.
And that is enough to get us oriented. Now, let's start using it with exponents. There are two easy ways to enter an exponent. From the keyboard, the caret, which you access by hitting the Shift key and the number 6 key, so typing 5^2 gives you 25, or on the keypad.
The a squared button does the same thing in one tap. For any other power, the a to the b button drops the cursor up into the exponent, so entering 5 and then clicking the ab button and then entering 4 will give you 625, or you can just do it on your keyboard with 5^4.
That will give you 625 as well. And one handy habit, after an exponent, use the right arrow key to bring you back down to the baseline so the rest of what you type doesn't stay stuck up on top. Next, let's talk parentheses.
Parentheses matter more than people expect. Desmos follows the order of operations, PEMDAS, exactly, so watch the difference. 5 - 3 in parentheses squared is gonna give us 4, but 5 - 3^2 with no parentheses gives -4 because the 3 gets squared and nothing else.
Same numbers, completely different answer. So, anytime you want Desmos to treat several terms as a group, make sure you wrap them in parentheses. For fractions, the / key is fastest. Desmos stacks it into a real fraction as you type, so 2/5 + 3/12 comes out to 0.65.
And if you'd rather see a fraction than a decimal or you need a fraction, the toggle next to the expression flips that decimal into 13/20. Okay, square roots. Square roots work the same two ways.
You can either type sqrt or tap the square root button on the keypad. Either one builds the radical for you. So, the square root of 25 is going to return 5. Next thing to know is how to enter absolute value, those two vertical bars.
You can type them from the keyboard, but most students find using the built-in keypad absolute value easier to find. Here's the handy part. You simply type an absolute value equation like the absolute value of x - 4 = 9 and Desmos draws two vertical lines at x = -5 and x = 13.
Those are your two solutions right there. Now, let's focus on the graph. First, plotting points. Points are simple. Just type the coordinates in parentheses, like (3, 4), and Desmos drops the point right on the graph.
You can even turn on a label for it in the point settings. Now, graphing a line is just as direct. Type y = 2x + 1, and the line appears instantly. If you need a second equation, like y = 3x + 3, Desmos is going to automatically produce it in a different color.
If things get cluttered, clicking the colored circle next to an equation hides that graph without deleting it. Click it again, and it comes back. Every so often, you'll type something and the graph looks empty.
Usually, that does not mean it is gone or that Desmos has malfunctioned. It's just off-screen. For example, if we enter y = 500 - x, you can't see the graph, but a few taps of the minus button zooms out until it appears.
And then if you hit the home button, that's gonna snap you right back to the default view. Now, one more thing about graphing and how useful Desmos is, it will mark the important points for you with little gray dots. If we enter y = x squared - 4, the dots sit at the x-intercepts, (-2, 0) and (2, 0), and at the vertex, (0, -4).
Clicking a dot gives you its exact coordinates, so before doing any algebra by hand, click those dots first. They often hand you exactly what the question is asking for. Now, the last tool we're gonna talk about in this Getting Started lesson is the table. If you need to build a table, hit the plus button and select table.
You will see a table pop up with x1 and y1 columns. As you fill them in, for example, x values of 1, 2, and 3 and y values of 5, 19, and 13, each row you enter drops onto the graph as a point automatically, and that's the setup for the line-of-best-fit trick we are going to cover in the Data and Statistics lesson.
But in terms of all the basic stuff, that's all you really need to get started. You don't need to immediately memorize every button or every feature. The goal right now is to simply become comfortable entering expressions, graphing equations, plotting points, and exploring the calculator.
The more you use Desmos, the more natural these tools will feel.
Read full transcriptOur goal isn't to learn every feature Desmos offers. It's simply to get comfortable with the calculator itself. We'll take a quick tour of the screen and then learn the handful of operations you'll use most often. Before we do anything else, let's look at the calculator itself.
The screen is split into two parts. On the left is the expression list. This is where everything you type goes. On the right is the graph window where equations, points, and graphs appear. At the bottom left, you'll find access to the keypad.
That's where your fractions, roots, exponents, absolute value, and most of the symbols you'll need live. At the top of the expression list is the plus button. That gives you access to tools like f(x) expressions and tables. And on the graph itself, you'll see zoom controls and a home button that resets the view.
And that is enough to get us oriented. Now, let's start using it with exponents. There are two easy ways to enter an exponent. From the keyboard, the caret, which you access by hitting the Shift key and the number 6 key, so typing 5^2 gives you 25, or on the keypad.
The a squared button does the same thing in one tap. For any other power, the a to the b button drops the cursor up into the exponent, so entering 5 and then clicking the ab button and then entering 4 will give you 625, or you can just do it on your keyboard with 5^4.
That will give you 625 as well. And one handy habit, after an exponent, use the right arrow key to bring you back down to the baseline so the rest of what you type doesn't stay stuck up on top. Next, let's talk parentheses.
Parentheses matter more than people expect. Desmos follows the order of operations, PEMDAS, exactly, so watch the difference. 5 - 3 in parentheses squared is gonna give us 4, but 5 - 3^2 with no parentheses gives -4 because the 3 gets squared and nothing else.
Same numbers, completely different answer. So, anytime you want Desmos to treat several terms as a group, make sure you wrap them in parentheses. For fractions, the / key is fastest. Desmos stacks it into a real fraction as you type, so 2/5 + 3/12 comes out to 0.65.
And if you'd rather see a fraction than a decimal or you need a fraction, the toggle next to the expression flips that decimal into 13/20. Okay, square roots. Square roots work the same two ways.
You can either type sqrt or tap the square root button on the keypad. Either one builds the radical for you. So, the square root of 25 is going to return 5. Next thing to know is how to enter absolute value, those two vertical bars.
You can type them from the keyboard, but most students find using the built-in keypad absolute value easier to find. Here's the handy part. You simply type an absolute value equation like the absolute value of x - 4 = 9 and Desmos draws two vertical lines at x = -5 and x = 13.
Those are your two solutions right there. Now, let's focus on the graph. First, plotting points. Points are simple. Just type the coordinates in parentheses, like (3, 4), and Desmos drops the point right on the graph.
You can even turn on a label for it in the point settings. Now, graphing a line is just as direct. Type y = 2x + 1, and the line appears instantly. If you need a second equation, like y = 3x + 3, Desmos is going to automatically produce it in a different color.
If things get cluttered, clicking the colored circle next to an equation hides that graph without deleting it. Click it again, and it comes back. Every so often, you'll type something and the graph looks empty.
Usually, that does not mean it is gone or that Desmos has malfunctioned. It's just off-screen. For example, if we enter y = 500 - x, you can't see the graph, but a few taps of the minus button zooms out until it appears.
And then if you hit the home button, that's gonna snap you right back to the default view. Now, one more thing about graphing and how useful Desmos is, it will mark the important points for you with little gray dots. If we enter y = x squared - 4, the dots sit at the x-intercepts, (-2, 0) and (2, 0), and at the vertex, (0, -4).
Clicking a dot gives you its exact coordinates, so before doing any algebra by hand, click those dots first. They often hand you exactly what the question is asking for. Now, the last tool we're gonna talk about in this Getting Started lesson is the table. If you need to build a table, hit the plus button and select table.
You will see a table pop up with x1 and y1 columns. As you fill them in, for example, x values of 1, 2, and 3 and y values of 5, 19, and 13, each row you enter drops onto the graph as a point automatically, and that's the setup for the line-of-best-fit trick we are going to cover in the Data and Statistics lesson.
But in terms of all the basic stuff, that's all you really need to get started. You don't need to immediately memorize every button or every feature. The goal right now is to simply become comfortable entering expressions, graphing equations, plotting points, and exploring the calculator.
The more you use Desmos, the more natural these tools will feel.