I am stumped on a problem I am attempting to author.
The issue is with MathQuill and the use of radicals that aren’t square roots. The intention is to require students to enter a single simplified radical as their answer. The problem is that the radical button in the MathQuill panel is read as a fractional exponent to WeBWorK, i.e. sqrt[3]{x} is read as x^(1/3).
This means that if we want to require a student to simplify by using Context(“LimitedRadical”) then students cannot use the pretty radical box from MathQuill since WW reads that as a fractional exponent even though it displays as a radical.
We can do that if we use the parserRoot.pl (as in the code example below) and then a student would have to select the textbox from MathQuill panel and then type root(3,x) to mean the cubed root of x.What I want is to find a way to have students be required to enter a simplified radical, such as in LimitedRadical, but that they can use the MathQuill panel as well.
Any insight would be great, thanks!
#Add or Subtract Radicals
# ENDDESCRIPTION
## DBsubject()
## DBchapter()
## DBsection()
## Institution()
## Author(Brittni Lorton)
## Date(November 2020)
## KEYWORDS()
DOCUMENT();
loadMacros(
"PGstandard.pl",
"MathObjects.pl",
"PGML.pl",
"contextFraction.pl",
"contextLimitedRadical.pl",
"PGcourse.pl",
"parserRoot.pl",
);
######################################
#below will force students to simplify and will only work if the student first select the text box from MathQuill and then types root(n,x) for their radical answer.
Context("LimitedRadical");
$ans1 = Formula("root(3,x)");
$ans2 = Formula("2root(3,5)");
#below will not force the student to simplify but will allow students to use the 'regular' radical selection from the MathQuill panel.
Context("Numeric");
$ans3 = Formula("x^(1/3)");
$ans4 = Formula("2*5^(1/3)");
BEGIN_PGML
Simplify each expression. Write as a single, simplified radical.
[`-3\sqrt[3]{x}+4\sqrt[3]{x} = `][_______________]{$ans1}
[`-3\sqrt[3]{5}+\frac{5}{2}\sqrt[3]{40} = `][_______________]{$ans2}
[`-3\sqrt[3]{x}+4\sqrt[3]{x} = `][_______________]{$ans3}
[`-3\sqrt[3]{5}+\frac{5}{2}\sqrt[3]{40} = `][_______________]{$ans4}
END_PGML
######################################
ENDDOCUMENT();