I'm taking an online "Elementary Algebra" class from my local community college. It's been a few years since I graduated high school and I've forgotten pretty much everything; including my T-84 Silver, which I never took full advantage of its potential anyway.

So I went out and got myself a new calculator, and for some reason I got the nicest one available; the TI-nspire CX CAS and I am utterly lost. Please excuse my ignorance, I'm about to ask some extremely stupid questions:

First of all, how you divide?!?! When I try, it gives me the answer as a reduced, improper fraction. How can I convert that to a decimal? Or is there a setting I can change to do it automatically.

Similarly, how do I add/subtract/multiply/divide fractions on it? To make the line between the numerator and the denominator is it just the ÷ key?

Also, I see that there is an "=" button that doesn't actually solve math problems, like the Enter button does. This leads me to believe I can enter entire equations and have the calculator solve for x. Is this true? And if so, how do I accomplish that?

Finally, will it/how do I get it to do fractional proportions? For example, what buttons would I press to solve this:

x = _ 5
9      4

I apologize for the many stupid questions, thanks in advanced for the help!

well I don't have an Nspire, but some of the 89 calls may work.

For division, on the 89, I used to always add .0 to the question. this usually would give you a decimal answer without having to turn off pretty print. so 5/4+.0 would give you 1.25 instead of 5/4

fractions on the 89 you would separate using parenthesis so on the calc you would type (1/4)+(1/4) and it would return 1/2 as the answer.

On the 89, to solve equasions, you would use the solve( function, and it used to work like solve(x+5=7,x) and it would return 2. if that don't work try nsolve.

the solve would solve the fractional proportion as well.

Just keep in mind that these are all 89 calls. My guess is that they would work on the nspire but there's a lot of functions the 89 did that the nspire does differently or not at all. at least it's worth a shot.

Thank you SO much! I don't have the calc with me at the moment, but that all sounds right.

I'll confirm it as soonn as I actually get my calculator, thanks again!