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Getting started with

This demo will show you how to get started with MathXpert. It takes ten or fifteen minutes to go through it. After that youll be up and running.

Every detail about all the features of MathXpert is in the online help. This demo just covers the basics.

The demo contains pictures showing how MathXpert works. They are just picturesyou cant expect to click on pictures of menus and buttons. Just click on the Next or Previous links in the bottom corners, not on the pictures. Later, if you want to view certain pages again, use the Contents link.

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Picking a topic The first thing you do is pick a topic. This tells MathXpert what kind of of problem you intend to solve. You can use the menus to pick a topic. (If you have Algebra Assistant, you have a Problem menu instead of an Algebra menu.)

The topics shown in this picture are the five items in the submenu on the right.

You may be uncertain which topic to select. Pick one similar to the chapter youre studying, or that seems to match your problem. If in doubt, choose one of the Review topics.

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There is another way to select a topic. Instead of using the menus, you can click the big Work a Problem Button on MathXperts first screen:

When you click that button, youll go to the Book Dialog, which youll see on the next slide.

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Selecting a topic from the Book Dialog

To select a topic from the Book Dialog: Click on the Algebra, Pre-Calculus, or Calculus tab at the left edge. Click on a chapter title on the left page. Double click a topic on the right page. The page is just a menu in disguise.

The Book Dialog provides the same choices as the menus, but in larger print and with more visual appeal.

The next slide shows how to pick quadratic equations from the Book Dialog. Previous Contents Exit
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Then, to make the final selection, you double click. That will take you to another window to select a problem.

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Problem Selection Window This is a picture of the MathXpert problem selection window. You use it to choose or enter a problem you want to solve.

MathXpert supplies about fifty problems for each topic. You can see them using Next and Previous, or the scroll bar. In the picture, were viewing problem 4.
To enter your own problem, you can use the Edit button, or select Type it In. For now well just work with problem 4 as MathXpert supplies it.

To work with the problem currently displayed, click OK. (but remember, this screen is just a picture, not the actual program). Just go to the next slide to see where click OK leads.
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This is a calculation window. Here you will solve your problem by taking one step at a time.
To take a step:

You select part (or all) of the equation. MathXpert responds with a menu of things you can do with or to the selected expression.
You pick an operation from that menu. MathXpert performs that operation, if possible. The next slide will show you exactly how this works.

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Use the mouse to select the part of the equation you want to change. In this case we want to factor the left side of the equation, so we select the expression we want to factor.

The next slide will demonstrate selecting a term

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The cursor changes to a hand shape when you approach the last line of your solution so far, to indicate that you can now start selecting an expression. When you release the mouse to complete the selection, the selected expression is highlighted. Then a menu appears, giving you a choice of things you might be able to do to or with the selected expression. Previous

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Selecting an expression You just saw how selection is done, but here it is in words. Move the cursor (thats the arrow controlled by the mouse) to (a little beyond) the upper left of the term you want to select.

Press the (left) mouse button. Hold it down and drag to (a little beyond) the lower right corner of the expression.
Release the mouse button.

The part about a little beyond is the key to easy and successful selection. The selection box snaps back to the largest expression contained in the box, so its better to select a rectangle a little larger than necessary.

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We select an operation from the menu. MathXpert will attempt to apply that operation to the selected expression. In this case it will succeed, as youll see on the next slide.

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The successful application of the operation has generated the second line of our solution.

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To take another step, we select the entire equation, and choose the operation indicated in the picture.

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This operation broke our equation into two equations, and because the topic is quadratic equations, MathXpert has taken the simple step of solving the linear equation x-6=0 to get x=6. Under a more elementary topic, that step would not be performed automatically. Previous

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Am I finished? I think I am. Lets check by clicking the Finished? Button.


Now, you could print your problem out, or save it to a file. Show me again

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You can use the Undo button to take back a line; the u key has the same effect. Holding down the u key a second or two, until it starts to repeat automatically, will undo all the way back to the beginning. Now look at the other buttons at the top of the calculation window. Hint, AutoStep, ShowStep, and AutoFinish are all designed to help you when you dont know what to do next. Lets see how. Previous

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This is what happens if you click Hint.

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When you click AutoFinish, MathXpert solves your problem completely and instantly. You can use AutoFinish at any time, for example when you have done the crucial steps and just want MathXpert to do the final simplifications. Previous

Of course, if you give MathXpert a sufficiently difficult problem, AutoFinish wont be able to solve it, but it will work normal homework problems. Show me again Next

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Clicking AutoStep causes MathXpert to take one step of its suggested solution. You can use the s key on the keyboard to accomplish the same thing.

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Clicking ShowStep causes MathXpert to show you how to take a suggested next step, by selecting an expression for you and highlighting a suggested operation on the menu. MathXpert actually shows you how to move the cursor.

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About MathXperts solutions and yours MathXpert supports multiple solution paths. That means that any correct solution you could do with pencil and paper can be carried out in MathXpert. Often there are many correct ways to solve a problem.

On the other hand, if you ask MathXpert to solve your problem, it produces just one solution. That is the solution that you get from AutoStep or AutoFinish.
Sometimes alternate solutions differ only in how they begin. If you take a crucial step or two by hand, then AutoFinish may generate a different solution than it would generate from the beginning.

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The Graph button

In MathXpert, youre never more than one click away from a relevant graph. This graph shows the two solutions of the equation.

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The Edit Button

Clicking Edit takes you back to the Problem Selection Window. From there you can select another problem, or change the problem by editing it, or type in a completely new problem.

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When you leave your calculation, for example by clicking Edit, you may see this warning. Once you go back to the problem selection window, your calculation will be gone. If thats not what you had in mind, you should save your work first, using File | Save from the menus.

Later, once you are familiar with MathXpert, youll probably want to turn these annoying warnings off by clicking the check box shown.

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Now well show you a couple of variations on how you perform a mathematical step with MathXpert. For example, suppose we want to subtract 2 from both sides of the following equation.

The next slide will demonstrate one way to do this.

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Now you would type in 2, since thats what you want to subtract from both sides. When you click OK, the operation will be carried out.

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Another way to subtract 2 from both sides would be to just select the 2. Then you get the menu shown above. The question mark in the menu stands for the selected expression. This method is easier because you dont have to type the 2, but it only works if the term you want to subtract is already visible on the screen.

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The next line that results from subtracting 2 from both sides could be different, depending on the topic you chose from the menus before selecting this problem. You might have chosen Linear equations (beginners) or you might have chosen Linear equations (practice).

Beginners need and get more detail.

After the first day, you want this instead. Previous

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Now well turn to making graphs. On MathXperts first screen there is this button:

When you want to make a graph, you can either use the menus, or you can click this button. The next slide shows where this button takes you.

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These pictures give you an idea of the different kinds of graphs you can make with the aid of MathXpert. When you see this screen in MathXpert, you can click on the kind of graph you want to make.

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The same choices are available from the Graph menu.

If you only have Algebra Assistant or Precalculus Assistant, you wont have as many choices of types of graphs. Some kinds of graphs only make sense to calculus students. But you have all the choices that make sense at your level of mathematics. This demo will show you only how the Graph y = f(x) choice works. You can explore the other kinds of graph for yourself. They are fully described in the online help.

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Choosing Graph y = f(x) we get here:

This works just like the problem entry window you already saw.

The problem shown doesnt start with y= You could have entered it that way, but MathXpert will supply the y =.
When youre happy with the function to be graphed, you can click OK to accept that choice and see your graph. The next slide shows what will happen.

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This is your graph. At the left is the Graph Toolbar, which provides you with some very useful buttons.

The next few slides will explain the Graph Toolbar buttons.

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The Parameter Buttons

These three buttons control the parameter a. Its value can be increased or decreased with the + and buttons, or if you click the a button itself, you can type in a new value, or change the amount that the + and buttons use to increase or decrease the value of a.

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The Zoom Buttons

These four buttons are called the zoom buttons. They enable you to double the domain or the range of your graph, or cut the domain or ranges in half, with a single click. For instance, if your graph runs from -2 to 2 on the x-axis, clicking the fat button in the second row will change it to run from -4 to 4. Often zooming out or zooming in is enough to let you see the features of interest in your graph.

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Rectangle Selection Buttons

These two buttons allow you to use the mouse to select a portion of your graph. After the rectangle is selected, click the Redraw button to see your new graph.

One of the buttons puts the center of the selection rectangle at the point where you first press the mouse button. The other button puts a corner of the rectangle where you press the mouse button. In either case, drag until you like the rectangles position, then release the mouse button.

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The Hand

This button enables you to grab your graph and slide it, so that a different portion of the x-y plane is visible. This is often easier than typing in new numbers for the ranges of the x and y variables.

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The Point-Slope tool


This button calls to life the point-slope tool. The tool itself has two parts: a pair of crosshairs that determines a selected point in the x-y plane, and a small window that displays the values of x and y at the selected point, and (if applicable) the slope of the graph at that point. You can drag the crosshairs along the curve, but they will stay pinned to the graph if possible. Use this tool to find the numerical value of solutions to equations, maxima or minima of functions, Y-intercepts, etc.

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The Range button

The button enables you to type in new values for the ranges of values of the horizontal and vertical variables of your graph. (Those do not necessarily have to be the customary x and y.) You will get the following dialog:

Please refer to the online help for a full explanation of the options you see here. In this demo, were just trying to get you started successfully using MathXpert.

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Improving the appearance of your graph

Here are two things you can do with the mouse to improve your graphs appearance. You can drag your graphs title to another location, where you think it looks better. You can resize your graph (like any other window) by dragging the lower right-hand corner. Since the graph paper always has the same number of lines per inch, this can be useful in making each graph paper square correspond to a nice round number.

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Graph Options

You can control every aspect of the appearance of your graph in MathXpert. Please look under the Options menu while you have a graph on-screen, and explore the possibilities.

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Youve reached the end of the demo. As the author of MathXpert, I tried hard to make MathXpert easy to use, as well as mathematically powerful and educationally helpful. I wish you success in learning the subject that the famous mathematician Gauss called the Queen of Sciences.
You should be able to start using MathXpert successfully right now. If it is helpful, you can start two copies of MathXpert, and run this demo in one copy while you try it yourself in the the other copy. After you have a few hours of experience, you should read the online help. There you may learn about some additional features of MathXpert that werent covered in this demo. Under the Help menu in MathXpert, there is an item that you can click to send email to the author. That email address is feedback@HelpWithMath.com. I want to hear your feedback. You can also go to www.HelpWithMath.com for the latest information about MathXpert.

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Contents of the Demo

Work a Problem
Selecting a topic Book Dialog Selecting or entering a problem Selecting an expression Choosing and applying an operation Buttons in the calculation window Finished Undo Hint AutoFinish AutoStep ShowStep Graph button

Make a Graph Selecting a type of graph Entering a function to graph The Graph Toolbar Parameter buttons Zoom buttons Rectangle selection buttons Hand Point-slope tool Range button Improving your graphs appearance Graph options

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