Need help with math? Here's an amazing tool.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/

Not only helpful with math, but that's what I use it for. You can type in pretty much any kind of problem and it will solve it, or at least give you helpful information that will lead to the solution. I'm taking an online college algebra class at the moment and I could probably pass the class using nothing but this.

EDIT: This is also really helpful, often even more helpful than WolframAlpha:

http://webgraphing.com/

You need an account to get full benefits, but accounts are free, and you can just use this one I already made:

User: UHME
Pass: UHME

 

I used it for the same purpose to simplify problems. It's amazing.

 

Wolfram alpha is REALLY overkill for all high school math. It really should only be used for calculus, and even with calculus it has trouble with large integrations and derivatives.

Personally I don't suggest you use Wolfram Alpha unless you already know how to do the math and just need it to reduce a ridiculously complex problem. Otherwise you're gimping yourself in the long run by relying on a piece of technology to do your work instead of knowing how to do it yourself.

Besides, for simple algebra it only takes a few seconds to solve in your head. It takes 7 times as long to type that into wolfram alpha.

 

I agree with malyce.

A generic graphing calculator can do everything you need to know in math class up until calculus. Until that point, using Wolfram Alpha is overkill. The only upside to it I can think of at this moment is the additional notation that you learn from using Wolfram Alpha.

 

Wolfram also has -
An Integrator: http://integrals.wolfram.com/index.jsp
A Step-by-step derivative calc: http://library.wolfram.com/webMathematica/Education/WalkD.jsp
One of the few decent online 3-D graphing tools: http://library.wolfram.com/webMathematica/Graphics/Plot3D.jsp

etc. Their full, pay-to-download program (Mathematica) is great as well, but the notation is a bitch to learn.

 

The notation is just LaTeX. If you're going to do anything in the sciences or maths, you'll need to learn LaTeX anyway.

Mathematica scripting is also pretty strait forward and very user friendly.

 

One doesn't use LaTeX to graph things, at least not if they want to get anywhere...

LaTeX is pickier with all those damn brackets, but I'm referring to the commands in mathematica (like PlotStyles that work in the real cartesian plane, but not the complex plane for some arbitrary reason, or 3D plot options that are denoted slightly differently from xy plots.)

Essentially, I'd liken Mathematica to photoshop - it's friendly enough for simple and familiar computations, but there's a certain amount of complexity inherent in its versatility. I probably know about 5% of the commands, as a generous estimate.

 

Thanks a lot, just bought the App for my phone !
Read the reviews and they're pretty good, also typed in a few problems and it's perfect.

 

sweet, thanks man!

 

Not really sure if on topic or not, but:

For anyone wanting to use those Wolfram addons, but with difficulties with the notation - you could always mess around with the online equation editor: http://www.codecogs.com/latex/eqneditor.php. It shows what the formula gives, and the source as well.

I use it on math papers for school cuz it makes me look pro lol.

 

Updated with another powerful math website. Probably even better than WolframAlpha as it's specifically made for math.