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A question about simplify

Posted on 2007-06-28 04:23 By fcsc (Maple Rating 1 14)
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I'm making questions for new mathematical students, to know which is their level and then help them in his first year, but i have a problem;

I want to know if they are able to simplify an operation, i.e.

4/6 i want them to write 4/6

with MapleTA i don't know how to do that, because a maple Graded question or a formula-enter question gives both valid, and i don't want to use string compare

(because "2/3" is the same as "2 / 3" but it's not the same string..., if there is no other solution i can use maple to throw away the space character...")

Anyway, there is somebody that knows a smart way to solve that problem?

Thanks..

‹ cartesian to polar equations "Error Handling" Message from .qu Converter ›

try a multipart question

Comment on 2007-06-28 11:45 from Alex Smith (Maple Rating 3 289)

One work around is to write a multipart question. The first part asks for the numerator of the reduced form, and the second part asks for the denominator. Automatic simplification sure is nice, but sometimes you just want to turn it off!

Here a sample MapleTA qu file for such a multipart question.

mode=Multipart@
name=reduce a fraction@
algorithm=$a=range(2,200);
$b=range(2,200);
condition:ne(gcd($a,$b),1);
condition:ne($a,$b);@
question=If we write the fraction $a/$b in lowest terms, then@
weighting=1,1@
numbering=alpha@
part.1.editing=useHTML@
part.1.question=what is the numerator?@
part.1.name=numer@
part.1.maple_answer=numer($a/$b);@
part.1.type=formula@
part.1.maple=evalb(($ANSWER)-($RESPONSE)=0);@
part.1.mode=Maple@
part.2.editing=useHTML@
part.2.question=what is the denominator?@
part.2.name=denom@
part.2.maple_answer=denom($a/$b);@
part.2.type=formula@
part.2.maple=evalb(($ANSWER)-($RESPONSE)=0);@
part.2.mode=Maple@

Or Inline questions

Comment on 2007-07-09 08:38 from Hans van Walen (3)

You could also use the Inline type question, where you use one field for the numerator and one for the denominator.
Use numer(answer) etc. to extract the values for the fields.

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