Wish I would have had this as a kid...

[Justinian]

It literally solves Algebra equations for you step by step and explains it.

Algebrator (http://www.algebrasolver.com/as-algebra-software-2.htm?gclid=CLn9uIe9zZ4CFUlo5QodGVcZqg)

AlgebraSolver covers algebra courses from pre-Algebra to College Algebra

Wow.

[Meson]

Don't we already have stuff like this? Mathematica, MathLab, Mapple, etc. A calculator!

[Justinian]

Don't we already have stuff like this? Mathematica, MathLab, Mapple, etc. A calculator!

The newer TI 's have equation solvers, but nothing like that program. I just thought it was cool. I've never heard of any of those other things.

[willag]

Don't we already have stuff like this? Mathematica, MathLab, Mapple, etc. A calculator!

Ugh, Matlab... :x Useful application, but boy did I get sick of using it in college. Mathcad as well. We were required to learn and use Matlab in the bioengineering college, so I couldn't avoid that one, but I had one particular teacher who LOVED Mathcad... awesome teacher, but boy could he be demanding - a new homework assignment every class, each with 3-5 problems that required you to use Mathcad.

And they weren't easy problems. He wrote his own books for his classes. He's the type of guy who loves to solve problems using mathematical calculations. He runs experiments at home, he makes his own wine, and he would geek about how much he loves solving problems all the time. In fact, for our biochem class, we made our own wine, bottled it, and took it home at the end of the semester. Coolest guy, gotta love him even when he frustrated us.

[Siendra]

Wolfram Alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Factor+(a^4+*+b^6+-+x^8)/(A^2+*+b^3+%2B+x^4)) can do this for free minus some of the explanations. That's just the example used in the demo for the software you linked. Most of its responses are more detailed.

[CrossboneGundam]

Yeah, god forbid we have to learn to do the equations ourselves, that wouldn't fulfill the goal of learning.

[Justinian]

Yeah, god forbid we have to learn to do the equations ourselves, that wouldn't fulfill the goal of learning.

Oh, but it's meant to just "aid' the struggling student... Not do their homework for them...wait (that's what it does). Heh, I do agree.

[Dr. Ezra]

Yeah, god forbid we have to learn to do the equations ourselves, that wouldn't fulfill the goal of learning.

I agree. There's much less learning involved with this "Algebrator" product.

[Haro!]

I agree. There's much less learning involved with this "Algebrator" product.
I disagree. As a guy who cheated his way through math you do learn a lot just by following steps. If anything that is the best way to cheat and learn in time to prepare for exams.

[Old Ape Face]

I object to your learning strategies, the best way to learn something is to experience it when it's absolutely necessary and repetitive.

Of course adding hints just improves how quickly you understand something. Which is what school is suppose to do.

In that case this tool is actually useful.

[MirKz]

I really wish I studied more in school... all this sort of stuff goes way over my head these days.. feel like a dumb *** !

[Aragami]

I struggled through math...

You have to learn the stuff for the tests. The program isn't that useful.

[Old Ape Face]

Next to Highschool Band/Computer Graphic stuff, Math was my best subject.

I failed gym because I forgot my cloths like every day.

I have to say though knowing how to read music has benefited me in math.

[fujyoshi]

Next to Highschool Band/Computer Graphic stuff, Math was my best subject.

I failed gym because I forgot my cloths like every day.

I have to say though knowing how to read music has benefited me in math.

wow math is evil o_o and I still find it funny how ANYONE can fail gym.

[Old Ape Face]

when I say I forgot my cloths it was more like I was too lazy to remember.

[Caster13]

I sucked at math. And Chemistry, I can't remember a single thing from that class.

I tried Computer programming one time in high school too, boy did I suck at that.

My best subject was and still is History.

[master terrence]

Ugh, Matlab... :x Useful application, but boy did I get sick of using it in college. Mathcad as well. We were required to learn and use Matlab in the bioengineering college, so I couldn't avoid that one, but I had one particular teacher who LOVED Mathcad... awesome teacher, but boy could he be demanding - a new homework assignment every class, each with 3-5 problems that required you to use Mathcad.

And they weren't easy problems. He wrote his own books for his classes. He's the type of guy who loves to solve problems using mathematical calculations. He runs experiments at home, he makes his own wine, and he would geek about how much he loves solving problems all the time. In fact, for our biochem class, we made our own wine, bottled it, and took it home at the end of the semester. Coolest guy, gotta love him even when he frustrated us.

:x that sounds like a class I would have to retake. Are you a chemical engineer?

Oh, but it's meant to just "aid' the struggling student... Not do their homework for them...wait (that's what it does). Heh, I do agree.

Ya, most of the time there's no solution manual for some of the problems in the book or practice tests and stuff. So it's useful, but be warned that many large universities don't allow graphing calculators (and some teachers don't even allow calculators) in class or tests. So if you plan on taking calculus, be prepared to do it all by hand.. and be prepared to do calculus all by hand too :/

[willag]

:x that sounds like a class I would have to retake. Are you a chemical engineer?

Nope, bioengineer / biomedical engineer. We had to learn aspects of chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineering. And then, depending on your focus, you'd take extra classes in that particular field. I was interested in tissue engineering, so I took his biochem course.

It sounds worse than it truly was. The bioengineering college was small in comparison to the rest, so you really got to know your classmates and would often help each other out (cheat) - and pretty much all the teachers knew it. We'd get the answers for the homework from the previous years, and 75% of the time he'd give us problems from those previous years. So out of 3-5 problems, maybe you'd only really have to solve 1 or 2 of them, and you had the rest of your classmates to help you with it.

That's not to say it was any less time-consuming. Because he'd base his tests off of the homework, just with slightly easier problems. So if you wanted to do well, you had to understand what was going on (his tests were worth 75% of your grade, homework was only 25%... blech).

His biotransport course was the one I got my lowest grade in: C-. Otherwise, I was an A/B student. So, yeah, I guess he was pretty tough.

[333jeffery]

^Glad to see that engineering students at other universities did homework the same way that me and my fellow students did. And, yes, the profs knew exactly what was going on.
We had to use a god-awful program called TK Solver. I hated that program with a passion....

[Siendra]

^ Ahaha. I figured it was only the guys here who did that.

[Victory]

I don't think helping each other out is cheating (depends on the specifics of the help of course). Without other people to help out I would have FFFFB... Probably (B being the only class I would have enough time to cover by myself).

@justin in high school programs like the one you linked might seem like this super cheat but as you move up they quickly become the problem. I must have spent... I don't even want to put a figure on it but several dozen hours just fiddling with matlab and statistica to do this semester's math projects.

[KatayokuのTenshi]

Algebra is easy. Division, now that's hard.

[willag]

I don't think helping each other out is cheating (depends on the specifics of the help of course). Without other people to help out I would have FFFFB... Probably (B being the only class I would have enough time to cover by myself).

Well, it was more than just homework. Someone always had old copies of stuff (tests, quizzes, projects, papers, homework) from students who previously took the class and then that person would share with the rest of the class so that we were on the same level. And the majority of teachers let you bring your notes to class or allowed you one piece of paper to put down what notes you wanted for the test (in which you would then copy as many problems down from previous tests as possible). Of course, having all the tests from previous years didn't guarantee you a good grade, you actually had to understand the material. But still, technically cheating.

[333jeffery]

One of my classmates had the back of his van filled with old tests and quizzes. And thanks to the zoom function on the copiers, we were able to fit many pages of stuff on just one sheet. I dare not say how much stuff we crammed into our HP48's, we filled entire mem cards with solved problems. Wore our fingers out punching-in all those things. We really did work hard to make things easier....

[Aragami]

Hopefully we'll be cyborgs- with computer adjuncts to do math- in the future.

[Justinian]

Nope, bioengineer / biomedical engineer. We had to learn aspects of chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineering. And then, depending on your focus, you'd take extra classes in that particular field. I was interested in tissue engineering, so I took his biochem course.

Bleh...reminds me of Thermodynamics and Chemical Kinetics (shivers) I really hated the semester we did those chapters in AP Chem during High school. I am pursuing a chemical engineering degree right now and things like that have come a bit easier in college, but I have to say in high school it was horrible for me.

[The Million Dollar Prons]

I wish they were still teaching New Math in schools. I'm horrible at putting two numbers together, but I can tell you why you may someday want to put two numbers together.