Show HN: Free Math, an offline React app for managing digital math homework

(Slightly off-topic) It's really sad to me that as of yet there is nothing to compete with paper and a pencil for math. I've used probably 10 different programs/websites, lots of stand-alone software, LaTeX, drawing programs on tablets, etc. for this during my time as a student. All of it feels poorly put together because none of it solves any new problems. Drawing on a tablet is a worse imitation of drawing on paper. TeX is just unwieldy for anything other than writing down a final answer. Even the tools that are supposed to help automate stuff almost always fail to do so. To be clear, I think there is a lot of room for improvement within the next few years, especially when it comes to touch-screen interaction and similar ideas. I'm just hoping someone comes along and invents a decent product that feels just as intuitive as drawing diagrams and writing equations that utilizes the power of the computer strapped to it effectively (i.e. not just attempting to translate and simplify my drawings to text).

What do you feel is the core problem you are trying to solve? And any concerns about whether the effectiveness of student learning might be affected by using an electronic tool instead of pen and paper? [1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;2016&#x2F;04&#x2F;17&#x2F;474525392&#x2F;attention-students-put-your-laptops-away" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;2016&#x2F;04&#x2F;17&#x2F;474525392&#x2F;attention-students-...</a>

Hi, I&#x27;m an investor from China. Instead of forcing students to use cumbersome computerized inputs for equations, we are seeing multiple approaches to revolutionalize how math homework is being marked in China, including professional scanners in schools, taking photos using apps, writing equations on iPads and using digital pens with special paper. The are multiple hard parts for this process, such as OCR for complex symbols, solving the problem itself using deep learning and theorem provers, and checking if the students work per line is correct. I haven&#x27;t seen anything like this in the US, other than a few work in automatic solving the SAT exam(geosolver?).

I&#x27;m sceptical that this will improve the classroom climate for that I&#x27;d have to be developed with actual teachers and students. Digitalization just for the sake of it is considered harmful.<p>Also I&#x27;d be wary to trust the similarity metric, IMO it is best to assume good faith until you have evidence of cheating.<p>Anyway I think this can turn out great, like other have said, if it gets some polishing here and there.

I think this is great! The offline first approach will clearly help to adopt this in a case when there is not central class management system in school.

Nice project, a claver way of skipping repeat write of previous math step work and just do little edit for the NEXT step in the Math homework .<p>github <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;jaltekruse&#x2F;Free-Math" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;jaltekruse&#x2F;Free-Math</a><p>On a different note: I think for grading purposes of student math home work which is done on a paper, Deep Learning neural network programs will be advanced enough in 5 years that is by 2023 - we will have a $200 flatbed scanner in every class room, as student finish his school work&#x2F;home work, she can put the papers on scanner, it will sent scanned image to school server which is running Deep Learning software which Grades and home work and record scores in Database for teacher to view .

Very cool idea. It&#x27;s so much better to see the steps of the solution rather than just ask for the final answer.<p>With a little polishing, this could be better&#x2F;faster than solving homework on paper!<p>It would be really interesting to somehow connect the homework notebook with other &quot;homework tools&quot; like <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;live.sympy.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;live.sympy.org&#x2F;</a> as calculator, or geogebra for geometry, or just a generic diagram editor for doing diagrams (a bit like the scratchpad in khan academy exercises).

I wanted to take a look at the source code, but <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;jaltekruse&#x2F;Free-Math" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;jaltekruse&#x2F;Free-Math</a> is giving a 404.

Looks great. Aside from ideation and execution, presentation was great too.