[hp50g] how enter the rand function for graphing?

[DavidM]

Graphing with the 50g is very flexible, but that flexibility comes at the cost of having many details to sort out in order to get the graph you need. And when you finally get the graph the way you want it, the limited resolution of the display of the 50g (by today's standards) rarely matches the value of the effort. The "canvas" can be expanded with PDIM to get more resolution, but then you either have to scroll PICT on the calculator, or transfer the image to something else in order to see the full picture. Neither choice is very good.

This specific example should normally be approached as a SCATTER plot instead of a FUNCTION, but going that route would require getting the data into a ΣDAT object. Treating it as a function instead actually simplifies the setup, but does require that some default settings are changed so as not to "connect the dots" when it's drawn. We are in essence forcing the system to plot points in the same way it would if this were a scatter plot, but without having to populate ΣDAT. That makes this example a bit misleading, but it still works.