Today is the annual celebration of Pi Day. In honor of this day, and to help students of different ages learn and practice mathematics in an immersive way, the Bing Education team developed a number of interactive answers. These answers range from a basic multiplication tables to a more advanced polynomial-equation solver. It’s also another Bing milestone in our continuing effort to make fun, interactive tools to support students as they learn math and science.
Multiplication table
Link: http://aka.ms/timestable
If you search for “multiplication table” or “times table” you’ll see a multiplication table that shows answers up to 15 x 15. You can even quiz yourself on how well you are doing: Click on the "Quiz me!" button and let the table guide you through a set of “fill-in-the-blank” questions, then Bing scores your answers. You can also print the quiz for offline use when away from the computer.
Geometry calculator
Link: http://aka.ms/geocalc
Searching for a geometry topic or question such as "circumference of a circle," "surface area of a cube with length 5," or "how to compute volume of a pyramid?" will trigger the Geometry Calculator. You can select from 21 different geometric figures along with a property of the figure you want to calculate. For example, to calculate the area of a circle with a radius of 5 you select "Circle" in the first drop down menu, "Area" in the second, and then type in "5" in the Radius input box. You will also see a diagram of the figure labelled with its properties as well as the formula used for the calculation.
Geometry Shape
Link: http://aka.ms/geoshape
The Geometry Shape answer shows helpful labelled diagrams for many different two- and three-dimensional geometric figures. Additionally, it includes fun facts about the selected figure and a list of related figures that provides more in-depth information about the shape you searched for. Because the two experiences are related, the Geometry Shape utility includes a link to the Geometry Calculator so you can quickly compute the properties of the shape shown.
Function Grapher
Link: http://aka.ms/graphfunction
When working with mathematical functions, it's often useful to see them plotted on a graph. When you type any function into the Bing search bar (using "x" as the variable), Bing displays an interactive graph of the function. You can pan across the x-y plane, zoom in or out using the scroll wheel or zoom buttons, and hover over the function to see its value at any given point. In addition, by stringing different functions together with commas, you can tell Bing to show multiple functions on the same graph, displayed in different colors.
Polynomial equation solver
Link: http://aka.ms/polynominal
The polynomial equation solver makes it easy to find solutions of single-variable polynomial equations. By typing an equation into the Bing search box, or by searching specifically for "polynomial solver", you can access the polynomial solver answer designed to be fun, interactive, and educational. Not only does it show the solutions, or "roots" to these equations, the solver rewrites the equation in standard form, factorizes the equation when possible, lists the local min/max points, and displays the solutions graphically. The graph, the extrema and the solutions sections are connected so that hovering in one section highlights the relevant parts in the other sections.
Number Answer
Link: http://aka.ms/number
The Number answer is for users interested in numbers and their properties. This utility displays interesting information for any number under 10 million, including whether it is prime, odd or even, happy, weird, or triangular (some of these may be new to you!). It also shows the number's prime factorization, its representation in several number base systems, the properties of nearby numbers on the number-line below, and sometimes even a fun fact about that number. Hovering over different sections will explain the associated concepts and show more details to help you discover and learn something new.
Number Converter
Link: http://aka.ms/numberconverter
If you’re learning mathematics, you may find yourself needing to convert a number from one system to another. Computer whizzes also sometimes need to convert numbers from our typical base-10 number system to number systems with a power-of-2 base such as binary, octal, or hexadecimal, as these are the "building blocks" of computer language. To facilitate this, we've built a simple answer that lets you convert numbers between different systems with ease. We also built-in the "Roman numeral" option, which can be helpful for reading the time on old clocks, years inscribed on monuments, and even an episode number such as for “Star Wars IV”. Search for things like "number converter", “43 to roman” or “convert 100101 to decimal” to trigger the Number Converter.
The Bing team is constantly building answers to enrich the learning experience for students and to help teachers and parents with learning plans. Stay tuned for more educational features.
You can check out Bing's full educational experience portfolio at
http://www.bing.com/classroom/search-tools and share your feedback at Bing Listens.
- Bing Education Team