Re: [Phys-L] photomath ... was: homework

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 10/04/2017 07:34 AM, Bill Nettles wrote:

> Apparently, it doesn't like symbols other than x.  I tried to get it
> to scan ax^2 by itself ( hand-written, cleanly) and it failed.

My observations are different.  Just now I got it to plot each of
the following:
	y = x^2
	x = y^2
	m = n^2
 
... all of which produce the exact same graph.  In the above
(but not in general) the variable on the LHS is the ordinate,
while the variable on the RHS is the abscissa.

In contrast, it would not graph
	y^2 = x
	x^2 = y
	m^2 = n

or anything like that.

===========================

Also, when I wrote
	5y + 3 = 1

it happily solved for y.

It also graphed it.  It set up a a system of
equations, which I found rather peculiar:
	x = 5y + 3
	x = 1
and drawing both, with y as the abscissa and x as the
ordinate.

=========================

It will graph and solve the simultaneous equations

	⎧ 3x - y = 21
	⎨
	⎩ 2x + y = 4


Hint:  You need to write the left curly bracket.

=========================

It knows how to do some integrals, e.g.

	      1
	∫ --------- dx
	   1 + x^2

but it doesn't know how to graph the arctangent,
which seems a bit peculiar.

=========================

General impressions:

It still has a lot of rough edges.

It will probably get better over time.

You can't complain about the price:  no fee and no ads.

For me personally, it's not good for much, but for a student who
doesn't have quite as many supercomputers lying around as I do,
it might be useful for some things.