Alvigra is a program under development which is designed to solve and graph algebraic equations. The goal is to do this much the way a math teacher might do it in front of a classroom - going through each step of the solution process one calculation at a time, highlighting each part as it is being used for the next line, and stating clearly at each step of the way what it is doing.
Ultimately, the goal of Alvigra is not so much to help students with homework (not that this is a bad thing). Rather it is to give teachers another way to present example problems in front of a classroom as well as create on line lessons or review material.
When I was teaching high school math, I liked putting parts of my lessons into PowerPoint presentations. That way the material would be legible and I would have an opportunity to get away from the white board for a while and walk around the classroom. However, I generally found PowerPoint to be less than optimal unless I put in an extreme amount of time on each slide, and even then the results were not always what I would have hoped for.
The ultimate goal behind Alvigra is to automatically generate a demonstration of how to solve and graph an equation, and then let the teacher go in and change it as they see fit (changing text, adding or subtracting steps, throwing in pop-up boxes, etc.). The result could be saved off and played in front of class like a slide show, or put up on the web so students can go through it at their own pace.
Right now, Alvigra can simplify quite a variety of expressions, but it can't solve an equation or do any graphing yet, and allowing teachers to change the program output is still a long ways off. If you want a more complete explanation of what the future holds for Alvigra, check my Alvigra To Do List.
If you want to see what the test program looks like, press the button or the hyperlink below. Try entering an equation like "(x+1)(x-1)" or "2+3(4*5+6*7)" in the field labeled "Equation Entry", and select the menu option "execute/simplify".
Launch the application
The Alvigra application should run on just about any system (including Linux, Windows, and Mac), but it does require that Java is installed. If you can't run the application, try going to java.com to download the latest Java Runtime Engine.
Comments or Questions: email me at john@alvigra.com