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VCE Stuff => VCE Mathematics/Science/Technology => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE Mathematics => Topic started by: auds on June 18, 2016, 11:38:40 pm

Title: Maths Programs
Post by: auds on June 18, 2016, 11:38:40 pm: Hi everyone, I'm looking for some advice regarding maths programs. I'm looking for programs which I can use to write maths equations, draw graphs etc. to make Maths worksheets. Does anyone have any particular program they'd recommend? User-friendly and transferable to Word would be ideal!

Thank you :)
Title: Re: Maths Programs
Post by: TheAspiringDoc on June 19, 2016, 08:01:12 am: Excel?
Title: Re: Maths Programs
Post by: MightyBeh on June 19, 2016, 09:49:23 am: GeoGebra sounds like something that would work, although I only really use it for graphing so I couldn't tell you a lot about the other features. People make some really cool stuff with it though.

I like it a lot for graphing trig stuff though, 10/10 if you like some dank functions
Spoiler
(http://i.imgur.com/7TdyJom.png)

As for worksheets, GeoGebra includes its own kind of worksheets, although they're not really the printable type. If you intend to write SAC or Exam style stuff, I'd actually just go with LaTeX, or if you hate yourself a little bit (or you're just lazy), Word's equation editor will work well enough for most things. There's also a Mathematics Add-in for Word that you can use to make graphs in the document, but honestly they look kinda gross imo and it doesn't make entering equations any less annoying.

MS Math add-in
(http://i.imgur.com/tkanXyN.png)

LaTeX is pretty good, but a bit inconvenient for writing equations (but it looks really great imo). You can try it out here on AN by doing the following:
Code: [Select]
[tex]\int \sin \left (x+\frac{pi}{3}\right ) dx[/tex] $\int \sin \left (x+\frac{pi}{3}\right ) dx$

Or you can generate it a little easier using this, which lets you save as a few image types. If LaTeX is something that interests you, try checking out ShareLaTeX. Learning curve's a bit steep but it's worth it imo.
Title: Re: Maths Programs
Post by: Quantum.Mechanic on June 19, 2016, 10:23:13 am: MathType might be a bit easier to use for writing equations.
You can download it, and its an add-on to MS Word
Title: Re: Maths Programs
Post by: de on June 19, 2016, 11:39:54 am: Without a doubt I'd use Latex for any equations (and geogebra for graphs-which is amazingly intuitive). Once you're used to it it is faster and more elegant than ms word by far. So if you're planning on writing worksheets with any regularity it would definitely be worth taking the time to learn; which, incidentally isn't really that hard. You'll just find yourself googling stuff every now and again with decreasing frequency- once you know the basic ideas \not for crosses on stuff \cdot for multiplication \frac{num}{denom} for fractions, you can almost guess many of the commands. And, from experience, if you're producing exhaustive working (algebra) with repeated stuff, copy and paste with a little editing is extremely easy and effective.
I use tex studio (part of pro tex package), and this alerts you to mistakes in coding as you go. Would recommend.
Title: Re: Maths Programs
Post by: auds on June 20, 2016, 08:34:35 pm: Thanks everyone :)