Developed by Michael Barry (mbarry@alleg.edu), Department of Mathematics, Allegheny College, Meadville, PA 16335.
Discipline: Mathematics
Riemann Sums is an application which allows the student to calculate regular Left and Right Riemann Sums for a function on an interval and to see a graphical representation of these Sums.
The f(x)=, left endpoint, right endpoint, and number of subintervals fields are all parsed by a parser, MiniMath, which recognizes a subset of Mathematica function expressions.
MiniMath recognizes the following functions, Abs, ArcTan, Cos, Cot, Csc, Exp, Log, Sec, Sin, Sqrt, and Tan, and the constants Pi and E. It does not recognize Log[b,x], which can of course be entered as Log[x]/Log[b].
It recognizes appropriate spaces as multiplication, but it does not recognize (x+y)z with no space between the parenthesis and z as a product. In particular 2x must be written as 2 x or 2*x.
After the fields have been parsed, commands are passed to Mathematica, and the graph is displayed.
Courses that use the application at Allegheny College include Calculus 1 and Introduction to Differential Calculus.
This software was developed under 2.0 NeXT release.
Since Riemann Sums calls Mathematica, Mathematica must available.
