Merit.oryo.us

Are there any websites out there that will let you type in an algebra problem and get an answer?  The short answer is no, there isn’t.  There are a few sites that have so called “solvers”.  These you will mostly find unsatisfactory as they will “solve” problems that you can already do and do them fast with your own calculator.  What you will find are forums and some simple calculators.

For those of you who have a bit more time and patience, the forum route is a good one to take.  Algebra.com has a number of wonderful math tutors who will solve your problems few of charge provide you post it in the right spot.  The solutions and explanations I’ve seen there are correct and very helpful.

For the do-it-yourselfer, you can get some answers to your algebra problem using some online calculators.  These can be a bit more finicky and do require that you have somewhat of an idea of what is going on.  One drawback here is that there is no additional human interaction.  The software which implements the calculator probably will do a decent enough job but there are no guarantees.  Most of the calculators you will find are for simplifying polynomial expressions and solving linear and/or quadratic equations.  If you want to solve radical equations, logarithm equations or rational equations you’re probably going to be out of luck.  One of the more interesting and slightly more advanced online algebra calculator that I’ve seen recently is the radical expressions calculator.  It’s capable of solving most roots and does so in a step by step process.

A couple days ago we unleashed a sister site, mathmat.oryo.us, which will offer math help. At present, there’s the math forum which has a section dedicated to college algebra. High school algebra and Calculus are on the way. It’s completely free. Spread the word if you would.

Venn diagrams are often a good way to illustrate the solution of set operations. For some, visualizing the solution is easy but for others, shading in the proper portion of a Venn diagram can be a challenge. Luckily, there’s a technique which will allow us to work with the sets first, without working about the diagram. To see how this technique works let’s first start with the following three circle Venn diagram.

Suppose we want to shade the set . That’s what we need to shade in. Now, let’s number the regions of the Venn diagram. Be sure to number the region outside of the circles as well.

We see that set , and . From here out, we’ll work with the numbers of each set and build up until we have .

First, . (That’s all numbers not in B.)
. (All elements of set or .
Finally, . (All elements of and , since we’re dealing with the intersection of these sets.)

Thus, we know how to represent the solution. It’s the region represent by numbers 3, 4 and 7. We color those regions and we’re done.

Following this simple trick, you’ll find that it’s easy solve problems with Venn diagrams.