WEB-BASED MATHEMATICAL TOOLBOX FOR GEOMETRICAL

CONSTRUCTIONS

A. Jayamaha
University of Moratuwa (SRI LANKA)
ayolajayamaha28@gmail.com

Abstract
Today there is lot of educational tools designed for mathematics. Open source software such
as GeoGebra and Octave are bulky in their architectural structure. Also there is Matlab
software which facilitates much more than what we ask for. Many of the computer aided
online grading and assessment tools require integrating editors to their software. But there
doesnt exist suitable editors that cater for all their needs in editing equations and
geometrical diagrams and graphs. Some of the diagram editors are GeoKone.NET, Tabulae,
Cinderella 1.4, MyScript, Dia, Draw2D touch, Gliffy, GeoGebra, Flowchart, Jgraph, JointJS,
J painter Online diagram editor and 2D sketcher. All these software are open source except
for MyScript and can be used for the purpose of editing mathematical diagrams. But they do
not fully cater the needs of a typical computer aided assessment tool or Educational Platform
for Mathematics. This solution provides a Web based, lightweight, easy to implement and
integrate solution of an html5 canvas that renders on all of the modern web browsers. The
scope of the project is an editor that covers all the mathematical diagrams and drawings on
the O/L Mathematics Exam Papers in Sri Lanka. The users can create and edit geometrical
drawings, graphs and do geometrical constructions that require only Compass and Ruler
from the Editing Interface provided by the Software. The special feature of this software is the
geometrical constructions. It allows the users to create geometrical constructions such as
angle bisectors, perpendicular lines, angles of 600 and perpendicular bisectors. The tool
correctly imitates the functioning of rulers and compasses to create the required geometrical
construction. Therefore the users are able to do geometrical drawings on the computer
successfully and we have a digital format of the geometrical drawing for further processing.

Keywords: geometrical drawings, html5 canvas, toolbox

1 INTRODUCTION
Decades ago teaching and education were based on blackboards and textbooks. Today even
classrooms still rely on these primary methods of educating students. But with time laptops, projectors
and digital media have invaded academic institutes and educational systems. Learning platforms like
Moodle and e-learning systems have gained popularity throughout the years.

Online Learning Platforms have advanced through the past years and play a major role in improving
the understanding and learning capabilities of students. In the domain of mathematics an editor is
needed for entering answers to the system.

For a student to learn how to do geometrical constructions a teacher is needed. But in some scenarios
individual tutoring and attention are not viable solutions. Therefore a system is needed to guide the
student in his or her attempts at geometrical drawings. In this system to create, edit and save
geometrical constructions, a diagram editor is needed. Mathematical Toolbox, the system discussed in
this paper provides assistance for the students in geometrical constructions using compass and
straightedge.
There are some software available that simulates ruler and compass. But software systems that
supports compass and straightedge geometrical constructions are not found. Even though there are
diagram editors, there is no software to be found which can run on a web interface to provide
diagrams.

Figure 1. Graphical User Interface

Figure 1 illustrates the user interface of Mathematical Toolbox. It has a less complex interface that
helps users navigate easily. The picture icons, straightedge, compass, label and divider help students
to assume their functionalities.

2 RELATED WORKS
There are many available commercial and open-source software that enable simulating, modeling and
solving mathematical problems. Some of them are Matlab, GNU Octave, GeoGebra, Analytica,
FreeMat, Maple, Mathematica, Mathcad and Scilab. Numeric calculations, symbolic calculations,
algebra, data analysis, 2D/3D data visualization and statistics are some of the functions supported by
aforementioned software.

Activemath is an adaptive learning environment for mathematics. It is a web-based, interactive and

service-based system. It provides interactive graphs and diagrams that capture mouse-click events. It
also provides a collaborative learning environment, E-Portfolios and learning diaries. Its diversified
research areas include semantic knowledge representations, user modeling, and planning,
educational data mining and natural language processing.

Knowledge representation is a key area dealt in this software. Semantic knowledge representation,
management, ontologies, semantic search in large knowledge repositories, modeling of pedagogical
knowledge, competency matching and competency-editing tools and semantic representation of
mathematics completes activemath as an educational tool for mathematics. It has a comprehensive
search tool. It offers an advanced search mode where forms allow editing of precise queries within the
context.

Geometers Sketchpad [1] is a commercial interactive geometry based tool. It includes the classical
Euclidian geometry, straightedge and compass geometrical constructions.
 Figure 2. Geogebra Graphical User Interface

Figure 2 is the user interface of Geogebra [2]. It provides much more functionality than compass and
straightedge. Therefore due to complexity and due to having more functions than needed it is not
suited for geometrical constructions that involve only straightedge and compass.

TI-Nspire graph calculator is a handheld calculator which is capable of plotting graphs. It is included
with a geometrical shapes editor. JGraph [3] is a java based graph plotting library. It is used as a
learning tool as well. It is the graph component for the visualization of layouts of graphs.

3 METHODOLOGY

The proposed solution offers to easily do geometrical constructions using compass and straightedge.
It simulates the functionality of compass and straightedge. There is a branch of Mathematics which
involves compass and straightedge constructions. It is a brain child of ancient Greek mathematicians.

The scope of the project consists of Euclids geometry. The first three of Euclids five postulates dealt
with geometric constructions with compass and straightedge. Geometric constructions are a central
part of the development of plane and solid geometry.

A geometric construction is a finite succession of compass and straightedge constructions that begins
with a given geometric figure and ends with a desired geometric figure. Some geometrical
constructions are difficult to solve. That is they are impossible to create with compass and
straightedge alone such as the problem of trisection of an arbitrary angle. They can be proved to be
impossible to construct with only straightedge and compass. In this solution any diagram that can be
drawn with only compass and straightedge is able to be created.

Figure 3. Drawing that uses the web-based Interface

In Figure 3 the User Interface of the mathematical toolbox can be seen. An example examination
question from 2012 O/L Examination Paper is done as shown. The diagram is saved in standard SVG
(Scalable Vector Graphics) format.
The html api is used to create the functionalities of the ruler, compass and label. The tool can be used
on computers as well as on tabs. A line is drawn from the ruler. Arcs and circles are drawn from the
compass. The compass radius can be locked or fixed. The center point of the circles can be fixed
when drawing from the compass. The implementation is done with html5 and javascript. The undo
function and clear functions undo the last drawn element and clears the drawing.

The html5 API arc is converted into degrees using the following equations. In the 1 st quadrant the
starting angle is calculated using the below equation.

In the 1st quadrant the ending angle is calculated using below equation.

4 EVALUVATION
Evaluating the system presents many practical as well as methodological problems. Evaluation
methodologies can be categorized as qualitative and quantitative analysis. Also there can be user
reports, specialists reports, analytical methods and observational methods [5]. In cognitive
physiological approaches Goals Operators Methods and Selection Rules and Task Analysis are the
main two categories [4]. Further it can be done as formative and summative. Next, two evaluations of
quantitative and summative analysis and a survey are discussed.

All the questions that involve compass and straightedge can be done from the tool. The diagrams that
are drawn from using only compass and straightedge can be constructed from the tool.

In the next comparison time to drawing on paper and time to draw from the tool are compared. Time to
draw from the tool is slightly higher when compared with drawing on paper after instructions are given.

Figure 4 shows a sample output from the online survey for the question how easy was the directions to
understand and clear enough to perform the required tasks.
 Figure 2 Graph of Online Survey

5 CONCLUSIONS

Online e-learning platforms require diagram editors in statistics, geometry, set theory and many other
sections. In this paper we present a diagram editor which can create and edit geometrical
constructions and save them in svg format. To improve the learning of the students this tool is used.

Computer-aided grading is left as future work. When the system administrator specifies the marking
scheme if the system can construct the logic relevant to the diagram the system would be more
suitable to use in a classroom scenario.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We dedicate our acknowledgment of gratitude towards Dr. Chathura de Silva, head of department of
Computer Science in Engineering, University of Moratuwa, for supporting this research, staff members
of the department of Computer Science in Engineering, University of Moratuwa and LK Domain
Registry Sri Lanka for facilitating the research.

REFERENCES
[1] Awe, William George. "How Geometers Sketchpad Improves Student Learning." Unpublished
Master Thesis. Bemidji State University (2007).
[2] Hohenwarter, Markus, Judith Preiner, and Taeil Yi. "Incorporating GeoGebra into teaching
mathematics at the college level." Proceedings of the International Conference for Technology
in Collegiate Mathematics 2007.
[3] Bagga, Jay, and Adrian Heinz. "JGraphA Java based system for drawing graphs and running
graph algorithms." Graph Drawing. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2001.
[4] Holyer, Andy. Methods for evaluating user interfaces. University of Sussex, 1993.A.A. Author,
Book Title. City/State: Publisher, Year of Publication.
[5] Cooper, Michael. "Evaluating accessibility and usability of web pages."Computer-Aided Design of
User Interfaces II. Springer Netherlands, 1999. 33-42.