Calculations beyond simple arithmetic

Had a look at the source, still not 100% sure what you want but would this work for you?

(EDIT:Removed Iframe code see next post)

Oops didn't realise that the forum would pick up the iframe, attached story instead!

Alex, thank you for your quick response. I forgot to add that I want to use Storyline to build my physics calculators. I only loaded one example of my work and see now that I assumed that using Storyline to do the calculations was implicit.

Let me try to explain my problem once more. 

Let's say I want my students to be able to calculate the period of a pendulum i.e. T = 2*pi*SQRT(L/g)

I provide value of g = 9.82 and pi = 3.142.

All my students have to do is to enter the value of L (length of pendulum) and calculator should work out value for T (the period).

To date, I cannot get Storyline to process variables to do this simple calculation because it only caters for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division - basic arithmetic. It does not allow me to process the SQRT (square root) function part of the equation.

ARTICULATE simply advises one to send in a feature request but I'm afraid not enough science people are using ARTICULATE and hence too the feature request is never prioritized.

What I'm looking for is some whiz out there that knows how to tweek the software in order for me to move forward. 

Hi Alphonso,

I can't help with modifying the Storyline code, nor am I a Javascript expert, but have you looked into including a calculator as a web object or a Flash file like the one in this thread? That way the students could conduct the calculations and then maybe would have a numeric entry box to place their answers in? 

Hi Ashley

to clarify, when I say calculator, I am not referring to a scientific calculator or a simple calculator that one could buy in a shop (or find on the web). I am referring to a specific physics calculator that a teacher sets up to calculate (i) the magnitude and direction of adding six vectors or (ii) the missing variable in the doppler equation - as the one I attached or (iii) or to calculate displacement using the motion equations etc etc.

Basically it involves the manipulation of variables, which Storyline allows. Except that Storyline stops short of us science teachers accessing the standard functions sin(x) or log(x) or 6! or x^1/2 or x^2. Now the x^2 is easy to overcome since it is numerically equal to x times x and Storyline caters for times, add, subtract and divide. The 6! is also easy to jippo since it is simply 1*2*3*4*5*6 etc But its the other basic maths functions that it does not yet cater for.

The sin(x) can be approximated by x - (x*x*x)/(1*2*3) + (x*x*x*x*x)/(1*2*3*4*5).......a linear combination of simple arithmetic computations, but you would agree that it is time consuming to program the long series in Storyline instead of just being able to use the function sin(x) every time I wanted to compute the sin of an angle.

Hope this clarifies things a bit more. (Or not)  

So in answer to your suggestion. No! I want my students to use the science calculators that i set up, not the calculators that one finds in this thread. 

You can do this in javascript

e.g. 

Math.sin(x);

Hi Alphonso,

Sorry that calculator didn't help you - but hopefully you can implement something with Phil's suggestion. Javascript is certainly not an area of expertise for me (much like Physics) so if you need help writing the Javascript I'd differ to the community for assistance. 

Allphonso, I cannot promise to have loads of free time but if you can post an equation I am happy to put a slide together that does your calculation, I can then post the file for you, you may then be able to work through your other calculations with a sample file and a bit of help from google.

Hello Phil,

In fact two years... hope you will read this post.

My formula is this one where var1 is a variable and var2 an other...

[var1/(0.522+(0.419*exp(-0.055*var2)))+(0.033*var2*var1)+var1]/2

Could you (when you have time) explain me how to make a slides with variables above or maybe a cool javascript (i don't know the language).

Thanks a lot in advance

Fabien

www.educationphysiqueetsportive.fr

Hey Fabien,

This thread is a bit older, so I'm not certain that Phil is still subscribed. You may want to message him directly using the "contact me" button on his profile to reach out - as the Javascript is not something that we're able to offer support for.