Microsoft Mathematics 4

[Turbinator]

I just discovered this free gem from Microsoft. It is a full featured scientific calculator, graphing software, and most importantly, equation solver. It is specifically developed to solve equations as a human would; therefore, giving you logical step by step instructions. You have no idea how many loopholes and brick walls I had to go trough in the past to get "human logic" results out of Mathematica.

They have both 64 and 32 bit versions:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=15702

This is my new favourite calculator, as I carry my laptop to my lectures I will be using this.
Ti 84+ step aside please.




.

 

[luki1997a]

I've seen it about 2 years ago. It was called 'Microsoft Math'. Didn't know that it is still in dev.

This program may be veryusefull, thank you.

 

[Turbinator]

The latest version came out in January 2011.

They now have handwriting recognition, so you can write out the equations by hand.

 

[diogom]

Ohh, this will be really usefull... Thanks a 1e6 Turbinator!

 

[Eli13]

This kills my 84+ silver. Awesome.

 

[fireballs619]

This kills my 84+ silver. Awesome.

The difference is, you get to (presumably) use your 84+ on tests and in class, so it stands in your favor to get accustomed to using it. Of course, if you are doing math for fun or reasons other than school- by all means use different programs.

 

[Eli13]

The difference is, you get to (presumably) use youy 84+ on tests and in class, so it stands in your favor to get accustomed to using it. Of course, if you are doing math for fun or reasons other than school- by all means use different programs.

No offense, but that's pretty obvious. I'm not that dumb. Thanks for caring enough to try to help me though.

 

[fireballs619]

No offense, but that's pretty obvious. I'm not that dumb. Thanks for caring enough to try to help me though.

Ah, very well then. It may be different where you are from, but around here, most of my friends just use Wolfram Alpha for their homework needs. Their line of thought is 'Why learn it on the calculator when I can use this much more easily, and it gives the answers in easier to read forms.' Thus, when it comes time for the test, most of them are stuck with a limited knowledge of the TI, which causes a lot for stress for them.

So, while it may be obvious for us, it is not so for many people.

 

[Jarvitä]

I've been forced to give up Mathematica after the uni stopped renewing licences last year, and I've been shopping around for a free CAS as well. However, as I don't use windows, MS products aren't really appropriate, so I've been using Maxima for symbolic computation and Octave for numerical manipulation since. It fits my needs perfectly.

It is specifically developed to solve equations as a human would; therefore, giving you logical step by step instructions.

Why would you need that? Computer algebra systems are meant to solve problems too complex, trivial or boring to solve by hand. If developing computer algebra systems has taught us anything, it's that humans are inherently poor at mathematical thinking. Why ask a computer to replicate that?

 

[fireballs619]

Why would you need that? Computer algebra systems are meant to solve problems too complex, trivial or boring to solve by hand. If developing computer algebra systems has taught us anything, it's that humans are inherently poor at mathematical thinking. Why ask a computer to replicate that?

I think one of the main user bases of Microsoft Math is students, who may still be learning concepts and who may not have a complete understanding of what they are asked to do. It makes sense, then, to have a software show the steps a human would have taken in solving a problem, so the student can see where their error came in, or which method they should have used to solve a problem. It is the same reason that teachers, when teaching pupils, show ALL of the steps in a equation, even when it may be trivial (for them) to do so. It is to help the student. Granted, having more complex programs (such as matlab or mathematica) do this would be bordering on inefficient, but again, Microsoft Math and these more in-depth programs have very different functions. While Mathematica is primarily a computation or analysis tool, Microsoft Math is a educational tool.

 

[Eli13]

Ah, very well then. It may be different where you are from, but around here, most of my friends just use Wolfram Alpha for their homework needs. Their line of thought is 'Why learn it on the calculator when I can use this much more easily, and it gives the answers in easier to read forms.' Thus, when it comes time for the test, most of them are stuck with a limited knowledge of the TI, which causes a lot for stress for them.

So, while it may be obvious for us, it is not so for many people.

Ah, so I see where you're coming from then. Many of my friends probably have never even heard of Wolfram Alpha, and instead use the 84 (or 83 in some cases). I've been using a 84+ for the past couple of years for a variety of uses. I'm fairly familiar with the 84, but of course, there's always room to learn with it. But this is a great program for use with Orbiter, at least I think it will be. Makes such things easier.

 

[Spacethingy]

Wow! Wolfram Alpha has a rival...

 

[Jarvitä]

Wow! Wolfram Alpha has a rival...

Wolfram Alpha is a gimmick, nothing more. Its claim to understand natural language is complete nonsense. I wish it at least also understood mathematica code, trying to feed it a complex calculation in a way it'll understand can be a pain.

Edit: It does, disregard that. It's still a gimmick, as it can only evaluate one expression at a time, and has no assignment or output history, can't handle external scripts, etc. It's basically "Mathematica: Cheat Your Way Through Calculus Edition".

 

[Mojave]

I love this, thanks for the link!!!!

 

[Spacethingy]

Tried it out, pretty good job Microsoft!

She's still a bit rough around the edges, so I won't be abandoning WA for a bit. The 2D graphing thing is basic (no scale changes, scales don't lie on the axes?!). I love the algebra thing though!