S O S Mathematics A Mathematics Help Site

S. O. S Mathematics - A Mathematics Help Site on the Internet – Helmut Knaust Nancy Marcus Math Medics, LLC P. O. Box 12395 El Paso TX 79913 January 8, 2002 El Paso TX

q An Overview of the Web Site Itself Contents § § Philosophy & Design The Building Blocks A Short Visit The “SOS Cyber. Board” q A Brief History of Sosmath. com § From www. math. utep. edu/sosmath § … to www. sosmath. com q Resources and Technology Us § How to put Mathematics on the Web? § Publishing on a Commercial Server § What Else Do You Need to Get Started? q The Users of Sosmath. com § Usage and User Statistics

Philosophy SOSMath is the website at UTEP, where you can work with material to help you: q Do your homework q Prepare for a test q Get ready for class

Vision q To Help Students Successfully Master their Mathematical Transition from High School to College

Target Audience q High School Students in their Junior and Senior Year q University Freshmen and Sophomores

Design Choices SOSMath started in 1996 - Netscape 2. 02 had just been released! q Make the browsing experience as easy for the users as possible: § § § No frames, no plug-ins Maximal browser compatibility Easy navigation Uniform look of the pages Keep bandwidth requirements low Allow for user feedback

Subjects on Our Site 1 – High School Mathematics 2 – College Mathematics Algebra Trigonometry Calculus Matrix Algebra Differential Equations 3 – Miscellaneous Add-Ons “Cyber. Exams” (Practice Tests) Tables and Formulas “SOS Cyber. Board” (Bulletin Board)

A Short Visit to sosmath. com q Homepage q Algebra § Reducing fractions § Solving equations with radicals § Solving polynomial inequalities q Calculus § Concavity and points of inflection § The Intermediate Value Theorem q Differential Equations § Orthogonal trajectories

The “SOS Cyber. Board” q Provides a valuable service to our users q Helps us interact with our users q Helps us to improve our site by accommodating user suggestions q Requires a considerable time commitment q Current bulletin board technology is not well -suited for mathematical notation. Visit the SOS Cyber. Board

A Brief History I Summer 1996 Planning First pages written August 21, 1996 Launch of www. math. utep. edu/sosmath Summer 1997 Summer 1998 Production of a large chunk of the material on SOSMath

A Brief History II Spring 1999 Negotiations with UTEP to start SOSMath as a commercial enterprise. May 14, 1999 Launch of www. sosmath. com on a shared web server. July 5, 1999 Start of the S. O. S. Cyber. Board. October 5, 2001 www. sosmath. com moves to a dedicated web server.

To Get Started… q A prudent design q A sensible plan q Time, “This is the point, where you should mention me!” q More time, [From our team member Mohamed Khamsi, q …And more time! Currently on leave at Kuwait University] q A wonderful team! q Some knowledge – not too much – of technology

Support From 1996 -1998 we obtained generous support from the following sources: q Network Resources Training Site (NASA) grant at UTEP q Model Institution for Excellence (NSF) grant at UTEP q College of Science q Department of Mathematical Sciences

How We Produce a SOSMath Web Page I Step 1: We write the content using La. Te. X.

How We Produce a SOSMath Web Page II Step 1: Writing the content using La. Te. X Step 2: Converting to html Math formulas become images

How We Produce a SOSMath Web Page III Step 3: By now we have produced the raw html web file.

How We Produce a SOSMath Web Page IV Step 4: We use Mathematica to produce graphics.

How We Produce a SOSMath Web Page V Step 5: After some editing by hand, the page is ready to be put on our web site.

Alternative Technologies to Put Mathematical Typesetting on the Web I q Math Type/Equation Editor § § Used with Microsoft Word Easy to use Used to have problems to properly align formulas URL: http: //www. mathtype. com/ q IBM Tech. Explorer § Uses a plug-in users have to download § Very good looking! § URL: http: //www-3. ibm. com/software/network/techexplorer/

Alternative Technologies to Put Mathematical Typesetting on the Web II q Math Markup Language - Math. ML § Similar to html, ASCII text, embeds into html-page § Current browsers cannot display Math. ML, § With the exception being “Mozilla” at URL: http: //www. mozilla. org/projects/mathml/ § Tech. Explorer can interpret Math. ML.

Interactive Mathematics on the Web q Live. Math § § Uses a plug-in. Great for 3 D-animations. Symbolic Mathematics capabilities are still somewhat limited. URL: http: //www. livemath. com/ q Web. Mathematica § § § Uses Java servlets. Mathematica is used as an authoring tool. Very versatile, but technically complicated URL: http: //wri. com/products/webmathematica/ Also available combined with web hosting at URL: http: //hostsrv. com/

Web Hosting File Upload and Host Management: • FTP protocol, using WSftp etc. • Telnet protocol Local Computer: • Preferably a PC with Windows-OS • Fast internet connection Remote Web Host: • Usually on a PC with Linux-OS • May host 100 s of web sites

To Get Started on a Shoe String Budget q Web Hosting Service, $10 -30 per month for a shared host q Domain Name, $35 per year q Software § § FTP client, $45 Computer algebra system? , $200 -1500 Graphics editing software, $70 -500 Back-Up capability, $0 -100

Page Hits Per Week (html hits)

Page Hits and Users Per Week

Popularity of Subject Areas Subject Algebra Calculus Differential Equations Cyber. Exam Tables/Formulas Trigonometry Matrix Algebra Data Source: Logfile Analysis, November 26 - December 2, 2001 % of Total Usage 44. 72% 14. 02% 9. 13% 8. 75% 6. 13% 5. 94% 4. 65%

Age Distribution of Users Data Source: Survey November 2000, 352 participants

Occupation of Our Users Data Source: Survey November 2000, 352 participants

More User Information Have you bookmarked “SOSMath”? Gender Yes 63% Female 50% No 37% Male 48% Data Source: Survey November 2000, 352 participants

Country of Origin Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Spain Hong Kong Israel India Belgium Sweden Portugal Other Data Source: Burst. Media, December 7, 2001 – January 4, 2002 Views 53. 64% 12. 36% 5. 00% 2. 82% 2. 60% 2. 50% 2. 22% 1. 46% 1. 38% 1. 12% 1. 06% 13. 84%

The end How to contact us: Mohamed A. Khamsi mkhamsi@sosmath. com Helmut Knaust hknaust@sosmath. com Nancy Marcus nmarcus@sosmath. com Math Medics, LLC P. O. Box 12395 El Paso TX 79913