[rtpnet-tact] TACT - Math tools as part of lessons such as MathCAD ?

[w4chl at amsat.org]

Dear RTPnet-TACT list,

This may be a little off topic, if so I'm sure you won't be shy about 
telling me where I should post this.

I have been using MathCAD (www.mathsoft.com) for over a decade. It has 
evolved to a full-featured, and full-priced technical authoring tool. A 
few years ago a freely sharable MathCAD explorer was made available that 
could be downloaded to share MathCAD "books".  This explorer just didn't 
allow the user to create and save MathCAD files of his or her own.  I kept 
that downloadable version ( 
http://rtpnet.org/parc/Download/MathCAD/mcexp802.exe ) and am preparing 
some MathCAD books for use with the Phillips Middle School ARC to explain 
antennas and wave propogation. This version (8.02) runs on old Pentium 90 
class machines with as little as 16MB of memory and 25MB of extra 
available hard disk space. 

Graphics and text created can be easily cut-and-pasted into one's favorite 
word processor for static documentation. The MathCAD Explorer allows 
interaction with the MathCAD "electronic books".

The reason I mention this - sometimes math concepts (manipulating lists, 
graphing/plotting results to share) are especially difficult to illustrate 
using spreadsheet programs. It is especially difficult to make the 
connection between analytic expressions and real data. MathCAD fills that 
gap, and the MathCAD 8 Pro versions are readily available on eBay and 
elswhere for $25-$45.  MathCAD 6 is still very usable and saving in the 
MCAD 6 format is still supported from MathCAD 8, and available for 
$10-$15. Only reason to pay anything is for the interactive capabilities 
and electronic book format.

Cheers & 73s de Mark W4CHL
Chapel Hill NC  USA   http://rtpnet.org/parc
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