Variable Sliders & Animations

If you need to define variables with simple values it might be easier to use sliders instead of variables. Sliders are same as variables except they have a visual slider associated with them that you can drag with mouse to change the value of variable. This is useful if you are trying to see the effect of a variable on the shape of a graph.

Change graph type from "3D" to "Variable".
By default variable t=0 is created. You can change the variable name from t to anything you want.
Type a new graph equation that depends on the slider variable that you just created. For example z=t*sin(x)
Use your mouse to drag the slider to the left or right. Observe how the value of variable t changes and the graph of z=t*sin(x) is updated.
[Optional] Use the text boxes on the left and right side of slider to change the minimum and maximum values of variable t.
Animate the graph by clicking on the play button located on the right side of the slider. This will continously change the value of t and animate the graph accordingly.

Hint 1: It may happen that you want to set a special value for the variable which is hard to set with the slider. You can manually overwrite the value after the “=” sign; the position of the slider will adjust automatically according to the manually set value.

Hint 2: Although GC3 is pretty fast it may happen that you will not get a “smooth”animation when you animate a very complex function at a high resolution, resulting in a longer calculation time. In this case you might see only snapshots after each calculation of the graph.

Sliders are an excellent tool for modeling or studying the behavior of functions depending on parameters. With the example you can show/study how the parameters (variables) a₀ to a₅ will influence the look of a polynomial given by y = a₅x⁵ + a₄x⁴ + a₃x³ + a₂x² + a₁x + a₀:

Variable slider 3d graph

Graphing Calculator 3D

Variable Sliders & Animations