51–60 of 63 posts
[1] http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2012/03/14/wolframalpha-app-for...
[2] http://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TextRecognize.html
I am at once both amazed and saddened. Mastering fraction reduction and later simple algebra when I was a kid was one of the most empowering experiences of my life. This is like having an app run a marathon for me - it's easier, but I'm not changed through the work.
I mean, isn't it basically a homework aid? While it's definitely cheaty, I can understand why it would appeal to kids who just want to get their homework done fast, or people who are stuck on exercises and want a hint.
> This is like having an app run a marathon for me - it's easier, but I'm not changed through the work.
Reminded me of "The Lenwoloppali Differential Equation Scanner" from The Big Bang Theory http://bigbangtheory.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lenwoloppali_Differe...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I will admit, as a once ardent anti-math student, I appreciate how frustrating it is to sit down, stare at a problem for 10 minutes and advance no where through feeble attempts. When I began taking Calc 2 (as an adult who's worked and gone back to school), I found wolfram alpha's integral solver to be INCREDIBLY helpful for working through practice problems (to your point, I was using it as a check/next step assistan…
It seems like a failure of the course/teacher if you are asked to solve a problem in which you can't identify the requisite steps and make progress? In my mind the reason for problems is to practice the techniques taught until you can: a) avoid common pitfalls b) recognise common patterns c) minimise calculation errors with sense checks However, when this problem set is marked and impacts your results obviously the i…
What is the use case for this? It's hard for me to see anything other than K-12 math homework (or early college, in some cases). Even graphing calculators have broader applicability than that, and that's saying something. I'm tempted to go one step further and say that it's hard to see it as much more than a "do my homework for me" app, but I know that's too harsh. Some wise users might turn to it only to check their…
I will admit, as a once ardent anti-math student, I appreciate how frustrating it is to sit down, stare at a problem for 10 minutes and advance no where through feeble attempts. When I began taking Calc 2 (as an adult who's worked and gone back to school), I found wolfram alpha's integral solver to be INCREDIBLY helpful for working through practice problems (to your point, I was using it as a check/next step assistan…
Applications like this are BEST used when utilized as yet another "tool" in the proverbial toolbox, and NOT as an endgame(ie: not a problem solver).
I too used WA to great benefit when taking the full calc series at my university and I credit it to helping me achieve straight A+'s in the series(the ONLY A+'s I EVER received in Uni). Yes, I studied my butt off too, and looked at outside work to learn the material, but WA helped ensure I was on the right track, or at least gave me "hints" as to what I was doing wrong. I never once used it as a solution, merely a calibration of my methods.
So yes, I think there are definite places for tools like these in the classroom, as much as it may seem like they are "cheats".
Man, I wish I had this (and cellphones) in high school. Would have made cheating so much easier!
When I was at school I had one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3 And got in trouble for writing programs in OPL to solve math problems. I reckon I deserved extra credit for initiative. The experience of learning to program has certainly turned out to be ultimately more useful than learning to do math without a calculator. (Not that I think that learning to do math without a calculator is useless,…
Then I dropped it on a steel deck, broke a hinge and the power lines from the battery case. Never have pulled it apart to rebuild, but it's in my closet still, 15 years later :)
I have yet to see an app support trigonometry. Is recognizing graphs too hard?
That would be a fun project. If you can digitize the graph reliably, you can then take the discrete Fourier transform of the data, apply some denoising/thresholding to extract the main components. This would tell you if you're looking at sin(x), cos(x), cos^2(x), etc. If you have a training set, you could maybe start picking out more complex functions like abs(x), 1/x, etc.
Wolfram|Alpha for iOS suports image input from camera[1] and has a TextRecognize function[2]. Has anybody tested it? [1] http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2012/03/14/wolframalpha-app-for... [2] http://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TextRecognize.html
A colleague at my office gave it a test drive. * http://youtu.be/jDbTKgWoufw Results: As of now, it can only solve some linear equations. It did successfully solve one quadratic but it couldn't decide if the variable was r or e (the variable was x). It was largely unable to solve handwritten problems, even simple arithmetic. note: This is a copy/paste of a comment I left on reddit /r/math and /r/windowsphone.