4 Math Web Apps That Could Save Your Teen’s Math Homework
This is a guest post by Vernon Morris of Engaging Edu Inc
Helping your child navigate their path through the study of mathematics can be quite challenging and, for some of us, can seem impossible. We don’t all remember those Geometry theorems from our own high school days!
Content knowledge is just one challenge we parents have. Sometimes, a much more daunting problem is your child’s engagement ( or lack of) with math. Whether you are struggling to help your child with some tough problems or just looking for ways to better engage your son/daughter, there are some awesome tools that can help out.
All of the applications in this post either A) make math more fun or B) help you understand how to solve literally any type of math problem. Do you want to take an integral–no problem, it can be done right on the internet for you! Do you want to a visual way of solving your math homework? Also, not a problem, it’s on the internet and best of all-it’s free. Let’s look at 4 of the most powerful math web apps:
1) Meta-calculator
URL: www.meta-calculator.com/online/
Cost: Free online version, pay for the mobile app on the iphone/ipad
Age level: Middle school through college.
Type: Web application and Iphone/Ipad App
Meta calculator is a multi purpose graphing, scientific calculator that is feature packed and has a clean intuitive interface. Its features are vast but here are some that standout:
- graph up to 7 equations and find their intersections
- trace a point or produce a table of values for any of the equations
- save an image of your graph to your computer
- scientific calculator with everything you’d expect including memory storage and usage as well as a handy equations solver
- matrices vector calculator that does addition, multiplications, additions and also lets you transpose or invert a matrix
- statistics calculator for doing everything from regressions, standard deviations to t-tests
You can also send your statistical data to the graphing calculator and plot out thepoints, regressions lines etc.. There are lots of nice calculators on the internet but this one stands out by the sheer number of its features and its easy to use interface.
2) Mathway.com
URL: www.mathway.com
Cost: Free to see answers, pay to see work
Age level: Middle school through college.
Type: Web application plus a mobile ready website
Mathway falls in the category of tools to help you solve specific math problems. It can solve, literally, just about any type of problem from middle school through high school including Calculus and statistics. It is free to see the answers but you do have to pay to get access to all of the steps.
What sets mathway.com apart from similar programs like Wolfram Alpha (described below) is its easy to use set of example problems–see the left side column. The user interface is also quite intuitive . Just use the tabs at the top to chose your topic (Algebra, Precalculus etc..) and then either start typing your problem or look on the left side for example problems. Although there is no mobile app of this problem, mathway does have a mobile version of its website.
3) Wolfram Alpha
URL: http://www.wolframalpha.com/
Cost: Free online version, pay for the mobile app on the iphone/ipad
Age level: Middle school through college and beyond.
Type: Web application and Iphone/Ipad App
WolframAlpha is very simlar to mathway.com–they are both tools that solve virtually any math problem and that can show you all of the work! Like Mathway, WolframAlpha offers a vast array of problem solving help from adding fraction (see example below) to working with matrices, vectors, and Calculus concepts! It is actually more comprehensive than Mathway.com!
However, most of us will never need to use the math that differentiates WolframAlpha. Don’t get me wrong, if you are an engineering major, WolframAlpha will have the edge on this front. However, if you are a parent trying to help your child Mathway.com and WolframAlpha will both offer more than enough content! WolframAlpha beats out Mathway.com in two areas:
#1) it has a mobile app unlike mathway.com
#2) it shows all of the work for free!
So, you might be wondering why anyone would choose mathway.com over WolframAlpha–the answer comes down to mathway’s superior UI and those great example questions. I suggest trying out both of the sites, and if you think mathway.com is worth it, then pay for the steps, if not, stick with Wolfram.
4) Math Homework Help: Ask your math homework questions and get answers from live people!
URL: http://www.mathwarehouse.com/ask/questions/
Cost: Varies
Age level: Middle school through college and beyond.
Type: Web Application.
It’s one thing to get answers from a computer like WolframAlpha, it’s quite another to get actual homework help from a live person! Mathwarehouse’s home helper offers a pain free way to get answers to your math questions. Teachers, tutors and math enthusiasts man this homework marketplace. Answers are usually provided within a few hours!
So..if you’re ever stumped and WolframAlpha doesn’t provide enough guidance, go to the homework helper at Mathwarehouse.com and post your math homework questions! Most of the help that you can on the site is free but you can also pay the tutors to help you answer your questions, if you are in a rush or need a lengthy explanation.
Wrapping it up:
I hope you find these tools helpful. They are, too my knowledge, some of the best resources out there for helping shore up content knowledge and for getting kids to like doing math. Try a few of them out and let me know your thoughts! Are there any other great tools out there that I missed?
Vernon Morris lives in Westchester, New York and runs Engaging Edu Inc, an education company that makes education based websites and apps–mainly focused on the Math Education niche
