MATC January Convocation Breakout Session:

“Communicating Mathematics with WinPlot and MathType”

Tuesday January 5, 2010

10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Room 359

Kevin Mirus

Description:This presentation will describe how to use WinPlot to quickly create high-quality graphs for use in handouts, tests, and as a teaching aid in the classroom, and how to efficiently use MathType to create professional-looking mathematical equations in a Microsoft Word document. Participants will be encouraged to practice the skills on acomputer as they are presented. Anyone who teaches math or who has to communicate mathematical concepts to students is welcome to attend.

To find this document on the web:

  1. Google Kevin Mirus:

  1. Go to the Reference portion of my main web page and click on the link for this document.

WinPlot

  1. General Background:
  2. Winplot is a general-purpose plotting utility, which can draw (and animate) curves and surfaces presented in a variety of formats.
  3. Winplot is freeware and can be downloaded at:
  4. One good idea is to install the executable in the root of your H: drive so you have Winplot readily available to you on any school computer.
  5. Tutorial written by one of MATC’s finest:
  1. Basics: Generating the graph of a 2D curve
  2. There are four graphing modes, all of which are available under the Equa choice on the menu bar.
  1. Practice: Draw a circle of radius 1 using the Explicit… mode, a circle of radius 2 using the Parametric… mode, a circle of radius 3 using the Implicit… mode, and a circle of radius 4 using the Polar… mode.

  1. The Inventory dialog box lets you edit the curves that are graphed, hide or show them, hide or show their equations, and several other things as well:

  1. Winplot can also graph points, lines, and segments.
  1. Practice: Place points (including some with anchors), radii, and tangent lines on the circles you graphed.
  1. Practice: Shade the inside of the radius 1 circle using Shade Explicit Inequalities…
  1. Practice: Define and graph a function using the User Functions… feature.
  1. Getting Winplot Graphs into Word Documents
  2. Use a small graphing window so labels show up better.
  3. Frame the image automatically using the Format… choice under the File menu.
  4. Copy and paste into MS Paint, then from Paint your document to avoid huge file sizes and slow print times.
  5. Practice: Paste large and small copies of your “bullseye” graph into a Word document to see what happens.

  1. Adjusting the Appearance of Your Graphs
  2. Use the choices under the View menu.

  1. Practice: Zoom in and out, and shift the graph around using the Page Up/Page Down keys and the arrow keys.
  1. Practice: Set the view manually, then Zoom Square, then Restore the view.
  1. Practice: Produce the graph below.

  1. Animation
  2. The letters A – W are reserved in Winplot for use as parameters for any graph, point, line, etc.
  1. Practice: Create an animation that shows how the intersections of the graphs of and depend on the parameter k.
  1. Practice: Create an animation that illustrates the limit definition of the derivative.

MathType

  1. General Background:
  2. MathType is a powerful interactive equation editor for Windows and Macintosh that lets you create mathematical notation for word processing, web pages, desktop publishing, presentations, elearning, and for TeX, LaTeX, and MathML documents.
  1. A free trial can be downloaded at:
  1. Basics: Creating Equations
  2. The Heart of MathType is its Toolbar:

  1. You simply choose the symbol or template you want for your expression…
  2. Practice: Type the Pythagorean Theorem and the solution for one of its variables, a fraction problem, and the general form of a polynomial.
  1. Efficiency #1: Shortcut Keys
  2. Fraction: Ctrl+f
  3. Exponent: Ctrl+h (h for “high”)
  4. Subscript: Ctrl+l (l for “low”)
  5. Radical: Ctrl+r
  6. Auto-sizing grouping symbols: Ctrl+9, Ctrl+[, Ctrl+, , Ctrl+Shift+{, etc.
  7. Note: it is preferable to use the auto-sizing grouping symbols over explicitly typing brackets or parentheses…
  8. 2  2 matrix: Ctrl+m,2 3  3 matrix: Ctrl+m,3 4  4 matrix: Ctrl+m,4
  9. nn matrix: Ctrl+m,n
  10. definite Integral: Ctrl+i
  11. Note: to get an auto-sizing integral, click on Shift+Symbol when selecting it from the template palette.
  12. Note: the tab key can cycle you between fields for a template.
  13. Greek letters: Ctrl+g, followed by the letter you want
  14. The shortcut key shows up in the lower left corner when you select a symbol or template.
  15. You can define your own shortcut keys under Preferences > Customize keyboard…
  16. Practice: Define a reasonable shortcut for the absolute value grouping symbol.
  17. Alt+F4 to exit MathType

  1. Efficiency #2: Storing Frequently Used Expressions
  2. You can store frequently-used symbols on the small bar or small tabbed bar.
  3. You can store frequently-used expressions and equations on the large tabbed bar.
  4. Practice: Create a system of three equations in three unknowns for your large tabbed bar.
  5. Practice: Create an augmented matrix for the system in the large tabbed bar.
  6. Practice: Create an elementary school addition problem and store in the large tabbed bar.
  1. Other Good Things to Know About
  2. Nudge key: Ctrl + arrow
  3. Text vs. Math vs. other font styles
  4. Format Alignment
  5. Colors

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