From glhardin at purdue.edu Fri May 1 18:03:56 2020 From: glhardin at purdue.edu (Harding, Gene L) Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 22:03:56 +0000 Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] Polar Format gnuplots Message-ID: Hi, Has anyone done polar-format gnuplots in LON-CAPA? Would you be willing to share an example? This is my first foray into polar gnuplots. I am having trouble getting the angle to display around the perimeter. It's rendering x- and y-axis values instead of angle and radius values. Best regards, Gene L. Harding, PE Associate Professor of ECET Purdue University 574-520-4190 https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/south-bend/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athanas at pitt.edu Fri May 1 19:28:00 2020 From: athanas at pitt.edu (Athanas, Angela) Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 23:28:00 +0000 Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] {Disarmed} Re: Polar Format gnuplots In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I have a couple of polar area problems. Here's one:
Determine the area of the right half of the cardioid formed by \[ r = $a + $b \sin{\theta} \, \]

@X1 @Y1 @X2 @Y2 @X3 @Y3

Area of cardioid right half is ________________________________ From: LON-CAPA-users on behalf of Harding, Gene L Sent: Friday, May 1, 2020 6:03 PM To: Discussion list for LON-CAPA users Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] Polar Format gnuplots Hi, Has anyone done polar-format gnuplots in LON-CAPA? Would you be willing to share an example? This is my first foray into polar gnuplots. I am having trouble getting the angle to display around the perimeter. It?s rendering x- and y-axis values instead of angle and radius values. Best regards, Gene L. Harding, PE Associate Professor of ECET Purdue University 574-520-4190 https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/south-bend/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From raeburn at msu.edu Fri May 1 19:38:23 2020 From: raeburn at msu.edu (Raeburn, Stuart) Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 23:38:23 +0000 Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] Polar Format gnuplots In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Gene, > > I am having trouble getting the angle to display around the perimeter. > One solution is to create 12 labels at the appropriate positions around the perimeter. See example below: 2*sin(4*t) Stuart Raeburn LON-CAPA Academic Consortium ________________________________________ From: LON-CAPA-users on behalf of Harding, Gene L Sent: Friday, May 1, 2020 6:03 PM To: Discussion list for LON-CAPA users Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] Polar Format gnuplots Hi, Has anyone done polar-format gnuplots in LON-CAPA? Would you be willing to share an example? This is my first foray into polar gnuplots. I am having trouble getting the angle to display around the perimeter. It?s rendering x- and y-axis values instead of angle and radius values. Best regards, Gene L. Harding, PE Associate Professor of ECET Purdue University 574-520-4190 https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/south-bend/ From glhardin at purdue.edu Fri May 1 19:38:58 2020 From: glhardin at purdue.edu (Harding, Gene L) Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 23:38:58 +0000 Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] Polar Format gnuplots In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Angela, Thank you for sending that. If you use angular/radial coordinates, do you know if there is a way to label the angles around the circular perimeter? I figured out how to turn off the Cartesian grid, but need to display angles from 0-360 or -180 to +180 around the circle instead of x-y coordinates. Best regards, Gene L. Harding, PE Associate Professor of ECET Purdue University 574-520-4190 https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/south-bend/ From: LON-CAPA-users On Behalf Of Athanas, Angela Sent: Friday, May 1, 2020 7:28 PM To: Discussion list for LON-CAPA users Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] {Disarmed} Re: Polar Format gnuplots I have a couple of polar area problems. Here's one:
Determine the area of the right half of the cardioid formed by \[ r = $a + $b \sin{\theta} \, \]

@X1 @Y1 @X2 @Y2 @X3 @Y3

Area of cardioid right half is ________________________________ From: LON-CAPA-users > on behalf of Harding, Gene L > Sent: Friday, May 1, 2020 6:03 PM To: Discussion list for LON-CAPA users > Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] Polar Format gnuplots Hi, Has anyone done polar-format gnuplots in LON-CAPA? Would you be willing to share an example? This is my first foray into polar gnuplots. I am having trouble getting the angle to display around the perimeter. It's rendering x- and y-axis values instead of angle and radius values. Best regards, Gene L. Harding, PE Associate Professor of ECET Purdue University 574-520-4190 MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com" claiming to be https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/south-bend/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From glhardin at purdue.edu Sat May 2 11:33:52 2020 From: glhardin at purdue.edu (Harding, Gene L) Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 15:33:52 +0000 Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] Polar Format gnuplots In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi everyone, My apologies. I should have been more specific about what I am trying to do. I want to generate some notional antenna radiation pattern plots showing main lobe, back lobe, and side lobes' sizes (both peak gain and beamwidths). These plots are normally done with radial values in dB from some negative value up to zero or some positive value. The angle values on these plots are typically marked in degrees around the perimeter. I have found some workarounds to get something approximating a polar radiation pattern plot. I used the tag to mark +90 degrees, <xaxis> to mark -90, and yaxis to mark 180, but that does not give great resolution. (The plot grid only shows radii every 30 degrees.) Likewise, I used the axis xformat and yformat parameters, in conjunction with the xtics and ytics tags, to mark radial magnitudes, but they only work for radial values from 0 to some positive number. If there is a way to do a logarithmic scale for the radial values, I cannot figure it out. After searching through the LON-CAPA Author manual and the gnuplot manual, I think this may be as close as I can get to the equivalent of a MATLAB (theta, rho) polar plot. It appears to be a limitation of gnuplot, not LON-CAPA. Does anyone know for sure? Maybe there is a way to do this in Geogebra, but I think I may have to compromise for now to get a problem constructed. My code is below in case anyone wants to see what the plot looks like. Best regards, Gene L. Harding, PE Associate Professor of ECET Purdue University 574-520-4190 https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/south-bend/ POLAR ANTENNA RADIATION PATTERN PLOT <problem> <script type="loncapa/perl"> $amplitude=&random(0.5,3.5,0.5); $omega=&random(1,2,0.5); $mainlobe_gain = &random(12,22,1); # Max antenna gain in dB $max_plot_radius = 5*&ceil($mainlobe_gain/5); $backlobe_gain = &random(5,8,1); # Antenna back lobe gain in dB $function1 = "$mainlobe_gain * abs(cos(2*t))"; $function2 = "$backlobe_gain * abs(cos(4*t))"; </script> <gnuplot width="600" transparent="off" samples="100" grid="on" font="9" bgcolor="xffffff" height="600" align="right" fgcolor="x000000" border="off" plottype="Polar" gridtype="Polar" minor_ticscale="0" major_ticscale="0"> <xlabel>-90°</xlabel> <ylabel>180°</ylabel> <title>+90° t<$pi/4 ? $function1 : t<7*$pi/8 ? 0 : t<9*$pi/8 ? $function2 : t<7*$pi/4 ? 0 : $function1 The plot at right depicts an antenna's radiation pattern with radial units in dB gain.
What is the peak gain of the main antenna lobe?
Amain lobe =
From: Harding, Gene L Sent: Friday, May 1, 2020 7:39 PM To: Discussion list for LON-CAPA users Subject: RE: Polar Format gnuplots Hi Angela, Thank you for sending that. If you use angular/radial coordinates, do you know if there is a way to label the angles around the circular perimeter? I figured out how to turn off the Cartesian grid, but need to display angles from 0-360 or -180 to +180 around the circle instead of x-y coordinates. Best regards, Gene L. Harding, PE Associate Professor of ECET Purdue University 574-520-4190 https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/south-bend/ From: LON-CAPA-users > On Behalf Of Athanas, Angela Sent: Friday, May 1, 2020 7:28 PM To: Discussion list for LON-CAPA users > Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] {Disarmed} Re: Polar Format gnuplots I have a couple of polar area problems. Here's one:
Determine the area of the right half of the cardioid formed by \[ r = $a + $b \sin{\theta} \, \]

@X1 @Y1 @X2 @Y2 @X3 @Y3

Area of cardioid right half is ________________________________ From: LON-CAPA-users > on behalf of Harding, Gene L > Sent: Friday, May 1, 2020 6:03 PM To: Discussion list for LON-CAPA users > Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] Polar Format gnuplots Hi, Has anyone done polar-format gnuplots in LON-CAPA? Would you be willing to share an example? This is my first foray into polar gnuplots. I am having trouble getting the angle to display around the perimeter. It's rendering x- and y-axis values instead of angle and radius values. Best regards, Gene L. Harding, PE Associate Professor of ECET Purdue University 574-520-4190 MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com" claiming to be https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/south-bend/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From glhardin at purdue.edu Sat May 2 11:36:00 2020 From: glhardin at purdue.edu (Harding, Gene L) Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 15:36:00 +0000 Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] Polar Format gnuplots In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Oh, wow. I just realized my email was not "connected" for some reason. Thanks Stuart! I will play with the code you sent a bit. BR, Gene L. Harding, PE Associate Professor of ECET Purdue University 574-520-4190 https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/south-bend/ -----Original Message----- From: LON-CAPA-users On Behalf Of Raeburn, Stuart Sent: Friday, May 1, 2020 7:38 PM To: Discussion list for LON-CAPA users Subject: Re: [LON-CAPA-users] Polar Format gnuplots Gene, > > I am having trouble getting the angle to display around the perimeter. > One solution is to create 12 labels at the appropriate positions around the perimeter. See example below: 2*sin(4*t) Stuart Raeburn LON-CAPA Academic Consortium ________________________________________ From: LON-CAPA-users on behalf of Harding, Gene L Sent: Friday, May 1, 2020 6:03 PM To: Discussion list for LON-CAPA users Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] Polar Format gnuplots Hi, Has anyone done polar-format gnuplots in LON-CAPA? Would you be willing to share an example? This is my first foray into polar gnuplots. I am having trouble getting the angle to display around the perimeter. It's rendering x- and y-axis values instead of angle and radius values. Best regards, Gene L. Harding, PE Associate Professor of ECET Purdue University 574-520-4190 https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/south-bend/ _______________________________________________ LON-CAPA-users mailing list LON-CAPA-users at mail.lon-capa.org http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-users From abertr at tcc.fl.edu Tue May 26 08:33:30 2020 From: abertr at tcc.fl.edu (Rex Abert) Date: Tue, 26 May 2020 08:33:30 -0400 Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] Using symbols for "infinity" in responses Message-ID: <7dd65ace-9b1d-1252-897a-4ba2588735a8@tcc.fl.edu> I am developing some questions for Calculus I limits at infinity. Sometimes the answer is +infinity or -infinity, sometimes a constant (horizontal asymptote). If I set the correct response as "inf" (lowercase), the previewer correctly interprets the symbol as expected. A guide published by Purdue suggests that all caps should be used, "INF."? I had the answer in a question set as "-inf" and a student entered "-INF" and it was marked incorrect, as Maxima should, because uppercase and lowercase symbols are different to Maxima. I guess I am just looking for clarification on a standard way to do this in LC, given the behavior of the javascript previewer. -- Rex Abert Professor of Mathematics Tallahassee Community College ***Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from Tallahassee Community College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this email communication and your response may be subject to public disclosure.*** From jgray at math.sfu.ca Tue May 26 18:13:50 2020 From: jgray at math.sfu.ca (Justin Gray) Date: Tue, 26 May 2020 15:13:50 -0700 Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] Using symbols for "infinity" in responses In-Reply-To: <402c624a28284434995964cf63c689d1@ITS-EXCHANGE04.sfu.ca> References: <402c624a28284434995964cf63c689d1@ITS-EXCHANGE04.sfu.ca> Message-ID: Hi Rex, I see that Purdue has a guide on Entering Math Expressions in LON-CAPA at https://www.math.purdue.edu/academic/files/courses/2016summer/MA16010/EnteringMathExpressionsinLON-CAPA.pdf While it is possible to author questions in LON-CAPA that accept this syntax, I do not believe that this is strict Maxima syntax: Infinity is written as inf Negative infinity is written as minf (though I think -inf will still work) The constant pi is written %pi The exponential function is written as %e^(x) or exp(x) ln(x) is written as log(x) - this is confusing to students but you could write a mathresponse problem to redefine ln(x) to be log(x) in the answer algorithm if you want. ln(x) is otherwise interpreted as l*n*x which makes accepting equivalent answers difficult. Best, Justin -- *Justin Gray* Senior Lecturer | Department of Mathematics Simon Fraser University | SCK 10531 8888 University Dr., Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6 Canada T: 778.782.4237 Simon Fraser University is located on the Unceded Coast Salish Territories of the x?m??k??y??m (Musqueam), S?l??lw?ta?/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), Kwikwitlem, and Skwxw?7mesh ?xwumixw (Squamish) Peoples On Tue, May 26, 2020 at 5:34 AM Rex Abert wrote: > I am developing some questions for Calculus I limits > at infinity. Sometimes the answer is +infinity or -infinity, sometimes > a constant (horizontal asymptote). If I set the correct response as > "inf" (lowercase), the previewer correctly interprets the symbol as > expected. A guide published by Purdue suggests that all caps should be > used, "INF." I had the answer in a question set as "-inf" and a student > entered "-INF" and it was marked incorrect, as Maxima should, because > uppercase and lowercase symbols are different to Maxima. > > I guess I am just looking for clarification on a standard way to do this > in LC, given the behavior of the javascript previewer. > > -- > Rex Abert > Professor of Mathematics > Tallahassee Community College > > > > ***Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written > communications to or from Tallahassee Community College employees regarding > College business are public records, available to the public and media upon > request. Therefore, this email communication and your response may be > subject to public disclosure.*** > _______________________________________________ > LON-CAPA-users mailing list > LON-CAPA-users at mail.lon-capa.org > http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-users > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From abertr at tcc.fl.edu Wed May 27 08:24:27 2020 From: abertr at tcc.fl.edu (Rex Abert) Date: Wed, 27 May 2020 08:24:27 -0400 Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] Using symbols for "infinity" in responses In-Reply-To: References: <402c624a28284434995964cf63c689d1@ITS-EXCHANGE04.sfu.ca> Message-ID: <55273afa-927b-d9d4-bbab-a4ec87330092@tcc.fl.edu> I was just wondering about whether there is (or should be) a "standardized" way to do it.? I have decided that what I will do is use a formula response with preprocessing to make student responses case-insensitive. Rex On 5/26/20 6:13 PM, Justin Gray wrote: > CAUTION:This email originated from outside of the college. Do not > click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and > know the content is safe. > > Hi Rex, > > I see that Purdue has a guide on?Entering Math Expressions in LON-CAPA at > https://www.math.purdue.edu/academic/files/courses/2016summer/MA16010/EnteringMathExpressionsinLON-CAPA.pdf > > While it is possible to author questions in LON-CAPA that accept this > syntax, I do not believe that this is strict Maxima syntax: > > Infinity is written as inf > Negative infinity is written as minf?(though I think -inf will still work) > The constant pi is written %pi > The exponential function is written as %e^(x) or exp(x) > > ln(x) is written as log(x) - this is confusing to students but you > could write a mathresponse problem to redefine ln(x) to be log(x) in > the answer algorithm if you want. > ln(x) is otherwise interpreted as l*n*x which makes accepting > equivalent answers difficult. > > Best, > Justin > > > -- > > *Justin Gray* > Senior Lecturer | Department of Mathematics > Simon Fraser University | SCK 10531 > 8888 University Dr., Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6 > Canada > T: 778.782.4237 > > Simon Fraser University is located on the Unceded Coast Salish > Territories of the x?m??k??y??m (Musqueam), > S?l??lw?ta?/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), Kwikwitlem, and > Skwxw?7mesh ?xwumixw (Squamish) Peoples > > > > On Tue, May 26, 2020 at 5:34 AM Rex Abert > wrote: > > I am developing some questions for Calculus I limits > at infinity.? Sometimes the answer is +infinity or -infinity, > sometimes > a constant (horizontal asymptote).? If I set the correct response as > "inf" (lowercase), the previewer correctly interprets the symbol as > expected.? A guide published by Purdue suggests that all caps > should be > used, "INF."? I had the answer in a question set as "-inf" and a > student > entered "-INF" and it was marked incorrect, as Maxima should, because > uppercase and lowercase symbols are different to Maxima. > > I guess I am just looking for clarification on a standard way to > do this > in LC, given the behavior of the javascript previewer. > > -- > Rex Abert > Professor of Mathematics > Tallahassee Community College > > > > ***Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written > communications to or from Tallahassee Community College employees > regarding College business are public records, available to the > public and media upon request. Therefore, this email communication > and your response may be subject to public disclosure.*** > _______________________________________________ > LON-CAPA-users mailing list > LON-CAPA-users at mail.lon-capa.org > > http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-users > > > _______________________________________________ > LON-CAPA-users mailing list > LON-CAPA-users at mail.lon-capa.org > http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-users -- Rex Abert Professor of Mathematics Tallahassee Community College -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From abertr at tcc.fl.edu Wed May 27 08:38:18 2020 From: abertr at tcc.fl.edu (Rex Abert) Date: Wed, 27 May 2020 08:38:18 -0400 Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] Using symbols for "infinity" in responses In-Reply-To: <55273afa-927b-d9d4-bbab-a4ec87330092@tcc.fl.edu> References: <402c624a28284434995964cf63c689d1@ITS-EXCHANGE04.sfu.ca> <55273afa-927b-d9d4-bbab-a4ec87330092@tcc.fl.edu> Message-ID: This does the trick: if($a*$d > 0){ ? $answer = inf; }else{ ? $answer = -inf; } sub toLowerCase { ??? my ($response) = @_; ??? # Remove spaces ??? $response =~ s/ //g; ??? $response = lc $response; ??? return $response; } ??? Evaluate the limit.

??? $$ $lim1 $$

??? ??? Enter a number, reduced fraction, or "inf" for $ \infty, "-inf" for $ -\infty, or "DNE" if a limit does not exist. On 5/27/20 8:24 AM, Rex Abert wrote: > > I was just wondering about whether there is (or should be) a > "standardized" way to do it.? I have decided that what I will do is > use a formula response with preprocessing to make student responses > case-insensitive. > > Rex > > On 5/26/20 6:13 PM, Justin Gray wrote: >> CAUTION:This email originated from outside of the college. Do not >> click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and >> know the content is safe. >> >> Hi Rex, >> >> I see that Purdue has a guide on?Entering Math Expressions in LON-CAPA at >> https://www.math.purdue.edu/academic/files/courses/2016summer/MA16010/EnteringMathExpressionsinLON-CAPA.pdf >> >> While it is possible to author questions in LON-CAPA that accept this >> syntax, I do not believe that this is strict Maxima syntax: >> >> Infinity is written as inf >> Negative infinity is written as minf?(though I think -inf will still >> work) >> The constant pi is written %pi >> The exponential function is written as %e^(x) or exp(x) >> >> ln(x) is written as log(x) - this is confusing to students but you >> could write a mathresponse problem to redefine ln(x) to be log(x) in >> the answer algorithm if you want. >> ln(x) is otherwise interpreted as l*n*x which makes accepting >> equivalent answers difficult. >> >> Best, >> Justin >> >> >> -- >> >> *Justin Gray* >> Senior Lecturer | Department of Mathematics >> Simon Fraser University | SCK 10531 >> 8888 University Dr., Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6 >> Canada >> T: 778.782.4237 >> >> Simon Fraser University is located on the Unceded Coast Salish >> Territories of the x?m??k??y??m (Musqueam), >> S?l??lw?ta?/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), Kwikwitlem, and >> Skwxw?7mesh ?xwumixw (Squamish) Peoples >> >> >> >> On Tue, May 26, 2020 at 5:34 AM Rex Abert > > wrote: >> >> I am developing some questions for Calculus I >> limits >> at infinity.? Sometimes the answer is +infinity or -infinity, >> sometimes >> a constant (horizontal asymptote).? If I set the correct response as >> "inf" (lowercase), the previewer correctly interprets the symbol as >> expected.? A guide published by Purdue suggests that all caps >> should be >> used, "INF."? I had the answer in a question set as "-inf" and a >> student >> entered "-INF" and it was marked incorrect, as Maxima should, because >> uppercase and lowercase symbols are different to Maxima. >> >> I guess I am just looking for clarification on a standard way to >> do this >> in LC, given the behavior of the javascript previewer. >> >> -- >> Rex Abert >> Professor of Mathematics >> Tallahassee Community College >> >> >> >> ***Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written >> communications to or from Tallahassee Community College employees >> regarding College business are public records, available to the >> public and media upon request. Therefore, this email >> communication and your response may be subject to public >> disclosure.*** >> _______________________________________________ >> LON-CAPA-users mailing list >> LON-CAPA-users at mail.lon-capa.org >> >> http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-users >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> LON-CAPA-users mailing list >> LON-CAPA-users at mail.lon-capa.org >> http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-users > -- > Rex Abert > Professor of Mathematics > Tallahassee Community College > > _______________________________________________ > LON-CAPA-users mailing list > LON-CAPA-users at mail.lon-capa.org > http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-users -- Rex Abert Professor of Mathematics Tallahassee Community College -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From raeburn at msu.edu Wed May 27 09:17:39 2020 From: raeburn at msu.edu (Raeburn, Stuart) Date: Wed, 27 May 2020 13:17:39 +0000 Subject: [LON-CAPA-users] Using symbols for "infinity" in responses In-Reply-To: <55273afa-927b-d9d4-bbab-a4ec87330092@tcc.fl.edu> References: <402c624a28284434995964cf63c689d1@ITS-EXCHANGE04.sfu.ca> , <55273afa-927b-d9d4-bbab-a4ec87330092@tcc.fl.edu> Message-ID: Hello Rex, The LON-CAPA javascript previewer available for forumularresponse items will display Unicode characters for inf and minf in the preview, but the text entered in the "Submit Answer" textbox by the student will be what is submitted by the web form. (See: the enode.js file in loncom/html/adm/LC_math_editor/src/enode.js in the LON-CAPA source repository -- source.loncapaorg/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/ for the mapping to Unicode. Maxima itself supports: inf, minf, and -inf formularesponse with a preprocessor routine to convert INF or Inf to all inf in a student's submission before sending to Maxima for evaluation is what I would do in the current LON-CAPA. > > I was just wondering about whether there is (or should be) a "standardized" way to do it. > Internally in LON-CAPA, a routine: maxima_cas_formula_fix() in lonmaxima.pm is used to (a) take care of implicit multiplication, and (b) convert pi to %pi, if pi is present, unless pi happens to be within a variable name (e.g., pie). If conversion of INF and Inf were to be made "standard" (i.e., without use of an author-defined preprocessor routine) then the likely approach would be to include an appropriate regular expression in maxima_cas_formula_fix(). Stuart Raeburn LON-CAPA Academic Consortium ________________________________________ From: LON-CAPA-users on behalf of Rex Abert Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2020 8:24 AM To: lon-capa-users at mail.lon-capa.org Subject: Re: [LON-CAPA-users] Using symbols for "infinity" in responses I was just wondering about whether there is (or should be) a "standardized" way to do it. I have decided that what I will do is use a formula response with preprocessing to make student responses case-insensitive. Rex On 5/26/20 6:13 PM, Justin Gray wrote: CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the college. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Hi Rex, I see that Purdue has a guide on Entering Math Expressions in LON-CAPA at https://www.math.purdue.edu/academic/files/courses/2016summer/MA16010/EnteringMathExpressionsinLON-CAPA.pdf While it is possible to author questions in LON-CAPA that accept this syntax, I do not believe that this is strict Maxima syntax: Infinity is written as inf Negative infinity is written as minf (though I think -inf will still work) The constant pi is written %pi The exponential function is written as %e^(x) or exp(x) ln(x) is written as log(x) - this is confusing to students but you could write a mathresponse problem to redefine ln(x) to be log(x) in the answer algorithm if you want. ln(x) is otherwise interpreted as l*n*x which makes accepting equivalent answers difficult. Best, Justin -- Justin Gray Senior Lecturer | Department of Mathematics Simon Fraser University | SCK 10531 8888 University Dr., Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6 Canada T: 778.782.4237 Simon Fraser University is located on the Unceded Coast Salish Territories of the x?m??k??y??m (Musqueam), S?l??lw?ta?/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), Kwikwitlem, and Skwxw?7mesh ?xwumixw (Squamish) Peoples On Tue, May 26, 2020 at 5:34 AM Rex Abert > wrote: I am developing some questions for Calculus I limits at infinity. Sometimes the answer is +infinity or -infinity, sometimes a constant (horizontal asymptote). If I set the correct response as "inf" (lowercase), the previewer correctly interprets the symbol as expected. A guide published by Purdue suggests that all caps should be used, "INF." I had the answer in a question set as "-inf" and a student entered "-INF" and it was marked incorrect, as Maxima should, because uppercase and lowercase symbols are different to Maxima. I guess I am just looking for clarification on a standard way to do this in LC, given the behavior of the javascript previewer. -- Rex Abert Professor of Mathematics Tallahassee Community College ***Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from Tallahassee Community College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this email communication and your response may be subject to public disclosure.*** _______________________________________________ LON-CAPA-users mailing list LON-CAPA-users at mail.lon-capa.org http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-users _______________________________________________ LON-CAPA-users mailing list LON-CAPA-users at mail.lon-capa.org http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-users -- Rex Abert Professor of Mathematics Tallahassee Community College