Microsoft Math 3.0
How do you define Maths : a joke defines it this way
“Mentally Affected Teachers Harassing Students”
Maths is a nightmare for many students and good night sleep for many. While you can get full marks without cramming a full problem, you get zero if you forget the steps required to solve the problem. May be, Microsoft Math can be of interest to all student alike.
I didn’t know about Microsoft Math, a product for students by Microsoft, until now. It’s available as a standalone product at $19.95 which I think is ok compared to costs of other Microsoft products and the value it could be for a student. To start with it is also available as a 30 day trial software sized at about 40MB. I downloaded it to see what I missed while I myself was a student.
What is Microsoft Math?
It’s an equation solver :
It’s more than 11 years since I left my college so remembering the equations I would have liked to solve on Microsoft is tough. I even don’t have the books left with me. But still I tried a few basic equations as a single quadratic equation, a set of two equation. The software elaborates the steps to be taken for solving the problem. A human could provide fast solutions to some typical problems, but being a software, Microsoft tries to solve every problem in a generic way.
It’s a Quick reference sheet for Formulas & Equations and solver too
It lists all important formulas and equations for Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Physics, Chemistry, Laws of exponents, properties of logarithms and important constants as well. I think I would have used these only as a reference sheet. If you already know which formula has to be applied to a particular problem them there would be no need to use the solver (unless you want the software to generate answers to complete homework, my son watches Doraemon a lot which takes credit to this idea!)
It’s a triangle Solver
I provided as inputs the sizes of two sides as 3,4 and an angle as 90degrees and the solver told me that I needed Pythagorean theorem to find the third side and law for cosines to find second angle and since sum of all sides is equal to 180 degrees the third angle could be calculated thus. The triangle solver also tells what type of triangle it is and the area covered.
It’s a Unit Conversion tool
Allows you to convert between various units in Length, Area, Volume, Mass, Temperature, Pressure, Weight/Mass, Energy, Power, Velocity, Time and Force.
It’s a Scientific Calculator
If you thought what this software can do is much limited, then check the Scientific Calculator. It allows you to solve problems related to Differential and Integral Calculus, Matrix transformation and calculations, trigonometry, statistics, Linear Algebra etc.
While Microsoft Math can do many things, this is a review by a former student. I would like to read comments from those who are students on whether they find this software useful? Can they successfully use it to solve problems in which they got stuck? Are they satisfied with the steps that the software documents?
There are some additional features too so of which are :
- Skins support for the calculator. (was it really needed? on the second thought may be yes, as mostly students are attracted towards this feature.
- Ink Handwriting Support that works with Tablet PCs and Ultra-Mobile PCs and recognizes handwritten problems
- Also available is a Microsoft Word add-on.
As a user of trial version I was not impressed by the activation screens appearing each time you open the product. I know I am not going to register it until my son is old enough to use that.
