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Ask HN: I am building a step-by-step equation solver to learn how math works

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Re: Ask HN: I am building a step-by-step equation solver to learn how math works

#11

Post by jrpt »

tkosan wrote: post #10
wayn3 wrote: post #9

This exists. Its a program called Maple and really sophisticated. Industry standard. Every physicist/mathematician has a license. It can perform all the standard operations on a lot of math objects that you have probably never even heard about. No offense here. Math gets a lot stranger once you leave calculus behind. There is wolframalpha, the computational knowledge engine. Provides maple core functionality and beha…

Is Maple able to show the steps a human would typically take to solve a given elementary algebra equation?

The market for "solve an algebra equation and show the steps" is students who want something to do their homework for them. And yes, websites (and graphing calculator apps) already do this. For example, http://cymath.com/

It's cool that you made it, but whether you decide to do anything else with it depends on what your goals are.

Re: Ask HN: I am building a step-by-step equation solver to learn how math works

#12

Post by tkosan »

jrpt wrote: post #11
tkosan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Maple able to show the steps a human would typically take to solve a given elementary algebra equation?

The market for "solve an algebra equation and show the steps" is students who want something to do their homework for them. And yes, websites (and graphing calculator apps) already do this. For example, http://cymath.com/ It's cool that you made it, but whether you decide to do anything else with it depends on what your goals are.

No currently used step-by-step equation software I am aware of shows all of the steps (inferences) that are needed to solve an equation, and why it took those steps. For example, I just had cymath solve 8x - 2 = -9 + 7x. The solution it provides is missing steps, and there is no explanation of why it took the steps it did. The solver I am writing shows all of the steps needed to solve an equation, and it is capable of explaining why it took these steps (although the "why" part is not shown in the video).

Re: Ask HN: I am building a step-by-step equation solver to learn how math works

#14

Post by jupenur »

tkosan wrote: post #12
jrpt wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The market for "solve an algebra equation and show the steps" is students who want something to do their homework for them. And yes, websites (and graphing calculator apps) already do this. For example, http://cymath.com/ It's cool that you made it, but whether you decide to do anything else with it depends on what your goals are.

No currently used step-by-step equation software I am aware of shows all of the steps (inferences) that are needed to solve an equation, and why it took those steps. For example, I just had cymath solve 8 x - 2 = -9 + 7 x. The solution it provides is missing steps, and there is no explanation of why it took the steps it did. The solver I am writing shows all of the steps needed to solve an equation, and it is capable…

Wolfram|Alpha does this pretty well, although they moved the step-by-step solver to the paid version quite a while ago and I've only tried the early free version. They also have an extensive knowledge base and other resources that make it very easy to understand even completely new concepts.

And Mathematica of course does everything Wolfram|Alpha can.

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