Matthew Mogielnicki

YutoTsukida

MathemagicsMobile App

  1. Name and Publisher: Mathemagics, by Blue Lightning Labs.

Costs: iPhone and iPad $1.99, Mac $2.99, Android ( Math Tricks Lite ) FREE but not by the same publisher similar app.

Website: (not working at the moment).

Purpose and Audience: The audience is for anyone who has taken middle school math and for those who see the great potential in mental math and the benefits that it has. The purpose of the app is to get users to learn mental math tricks and be able to do a wide variety of mental computations in their head easily, quickly, and accurately.

What it does: The app uses vedic mathematics (math tricks and patterns) of specific computations that people may come across frequently, such as leaving a 10% tip and allows users to practice mentally computing. The app outlines what to do with a ‘trick’ and lets the user practice using with different levels that the app goes through. There is also a game that allows the user to further practice along with other ‘tricks’ learned to help master the mental computations.

  1. Strengths: Has a lot of ‘tricks’ for users to learn, the interface and layout is easy to follow and well set up, puts mental computations high on priorities, does not repeat questions for practice, has a clearly outlined solution to the ‘trick’.

Weaknesses: sometimes get frustrating if you do not understand the steps to the ‘trick’, costs money, can be time consuming to initially figure out the ‘trick’, a big focus on memorization, is sometimes hard to click for drop menus, lacks color.

Review: Overall the app is fun for users and allows for a bit of mystery as to how these ‘tricks’ work. The app exposes some vedic mathematics and is intended for those who want to be quick witted and love mental math. It gets students away from the calculator and gets their hands dirty with trying patterns that allow for quick computation. The app is expensive for students who always look for FREE when looking at apps and is a lot of memorization. The app has a good layout and plenty of tricks to keep the user preoccupied and the mobile app allows for animation and more of a friendly interface.