<font face="tahoma,sans-serif">With Sage you can do this kind of stuff:<br><br></font><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font face="tahoma,sans-serif">sage: eq1(x,y) = (y == 2/3*x + 5)<br>sage: eq2(x,y) = (4*x - 2*y == 7)<br>
sage: eq1<br>y == 2/3*x + 5<br>sage: eq2<br>4*x - 2*y == 7<br>sage: eq3 = eq2(y = 2/3*x + 5)<br>sage: eq3<br>8/3*x - 10 == 7<br>sage: eq3 += 10<br>sage: eq3<br>8/3*x == 17<br>sage: eq3 /= 8/3<br>sage: eq3<br>x == (51/8)<br>
sage: eq1(x=51/8)<br>y == (37/4)<br><br></font></div><font face="tahoma,sans-serif"><a href="http://sagemath.org/">Sage</a> is Python with mathematical super powers added.</font><font face="tahoma,sans-serif"> It lets you treat an equation as an object and manipulate it in various ways - substituting different values for the variables or rearranging terms. It of course has a solve function, but I've used it as above to 'show work'. <br>
</font><br>I don't think there's a tablet app for it, but you can use Sage through a browser. <br><br><br>- Michel<br><font face="tahoma,sans-serif"><br><br></font><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 8:36 AM, Jay Bloodworth <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:johnabloodworth3@gmail.com">johnabloodworth3@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">This question is not really specific to python. Apologies if that is a<br>
party foul, but I think it is in the spirit of the list.<br>
<br>
Suppose I give an algebra student the system:<br>
<br>
y=2/3x + 5<br>
4x - 2y = 7<br>
<br>
I want the student to solve the system algebraically, to show her work,<br>
to use appropriate notation, and to do it on a tablet computer rather<br>
than pencil and paper. What does the UI look like for this task? Is it<br>
something the equation editor for a word processor? Or more specialized?<br>
Are their lots of menus? Or is it more like LaTeX, using special text<br>
syntax to denote fractions, etc. How do we make sure that using the UI<br>
doesn't occupy so many brain cycles that it limits the student's ability<br>
to do the algebra?<br>
<br>
Obviously this is less about solving systems in particular and more<br>
about the issues that come up as computers begin to replace pencil and<br>
paper as the standard format for communicating in a math classroom. I<br>
would appreciate your thoughts.<br>
<br>
Jay<br>
<br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div>==================================<br>"What I cannot create, I do not understand."</div><div><br></div><div>- Richard Feynman</div>==================================<br>
"Computer science is the new mathematics."<div><br></div><div>- Dr. Christos Papadimitriou<br>==================================<br></div><br>