Exercises

Units (Students)

How students enter physical units in unit blanks

Units: Student Guide

This guide explains how students should enter physical units (meters, seconds, kilograms, etc.) when answering unit blanks.

Unit blanks: Students can identify a MathMatize unit blank by the instructions printed in input banner: "Input a value with units below". A unit blank expects a mathematical expression that includes both a numeric value and units. Unit blanks do not accept variable quantities; the numeric value in the expression must be constant. MathMatize supports a variety of SI and non-metric units used across many fields in science. Metric units support prefixes like k or kilo, and many units accept both a full name and an abbreviation. For a list of SI prefixes supported by MathMatize please visit the NIST SI Prefixes page.

Entering units in a unit blank

Students can type units into the unit blank input using a physical keyboard or use the units dialog in the virtual keyboard.

Typing with a physical keyboard:

The preferred way to enter units is to use the <unit> syntax, e.g. <m>, <cm>, <millimeter>, <N>.
Compound units can be entered by typing the usual operators, e.g. / for "per", and ^ for exponents: <m>, <cm>, <N><m>, <kg><m>/<s>^2.
Alternatively, instead of using the <unit> syntax students can enter units directly as if they were variables. When writing units as variables, however, explicit multiplication must be used for typing compound variables: m, cm, N*m, kg*m/s^2.
Prefix for micro can be entered as u, e.g. <us> or us for microsecond.

Virtual keyboard:

Units can also be entered by activating unit input's virtual keyboard. When units are allowed in the expression, students can open the "Units" dialog from the numeric layer of the virtual keyboard. The dialog lists supported units grouped by category, e.g. length, time, mass, energy, etc.
Students can optionally choose a prefix by dragging a slider. All compatible units in the dialog will now display the chosen prefix prepended to the unit. By adjusting the slider first and then clicking a unit, students can input units with the desired prefix.