User talk:Ntropyman

Welcome! Hello Ntropyman, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To get started, you may Take a guided tour and learn to edit. Visit a (kind of) random random project. Browse everything on Wikiversity, or visit a portal corresponding to your educational level: pre-school, primary, secondary, tertiary, non-formal education. Find out about research activities on Wikiversity. Read an introduction for teachers and find out how to write an educational resource for Wikiversity. Give feedback about your initial observations Discuss Wikiversity issues or ask questions at the colloquium. Chat with other Wikiversitans on #wikiversity-en. And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! --JWSchmidt 02:12, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

--JWSchmidt 02:12, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the illustration in Primary mathematics:Powers, roots, and exponents

The graphic cube looks much nicer than my ASCII-art version. The numbers are a bit small, though. Is there any way you could double their size relative to the cube ? Thanks, StuRat 02:13, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the kind word. I almost didn't want to change the pic; I appreciate ASCII art, and that one had some time in it! I agree that the numbers are too small. I used GeoGebra, free on the web, to make the cube. I made the text as high as a drop-down box would allow, but there may be some way to get those numbers larger yet. I'll try to find out: that was my second-ever effort with GeoGebra, so only more experimenting will tell. Ntropyman 02:44, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

You're welcome, and I wish you luck getting it to do what you want it to. If the numbers can't be made any larger, perhaps the cube could be made smaller, then the whole works could be scaled up ? StuRat 03:20, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

BTW, I improved my ASCII art version and left it on my home page for posterity. StuRat 03:46, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

I took your suggestion, and it worked fine, except for the dangedest thing - the picture displays on both the "powers" page and yours squashed horizontally, but it didn't upload that way, as can be seen when you click on it. And it looks okay here, too. Odd. Ntropyman 05:59, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Well never mind, it looks right now. I deleted then re-inserted the blank line before the tag in the code for the page, and ta-daaa, all is well. Ntropyman 06:10, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, that looks much better. Could you also fix the 2D square illustration ? The brackets look just awful and there's too much white space around it. If you can't do it, maybe I can, but I'd probably just have to remove the brackets, as I know of no way to create better looking brackets. StuRat 15:49, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

You're reading my mind (again!) I don't think I can do any better either though, so I'm for letting it stand. I suppose a graphic with no brackets would be okay. I'm kinda 'meh' on the whole thing. Ntropyman 01:21, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

I managed to create an improved 2D illustration with brackets and less white space, although I had to do it the hard way (using the pixel editor in MSPAINT to add the brackets). I've added it to the article. StuRat 05:26, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Formula on line underneath

On Primary_mathematics/Powers,_roots,_and_exponents#Exponents, the formula must look completely different for you than me, because it just looks awful on my browser. I suppose I can provide a screen grab, but let me first try to show what it looks like with ASCII text:

In general,                   ,where there are n x's to be multiplied.
            xn = x•x•x• ••• •x

So, is this what it looks like on your browser ? If so, can you please explain why you want it to look like that ? StuRat 20:35, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

No, in my browser (IE7) the equal sign is "inline" with the rest of the sentence. What browser are you using?Ntropyman 03:31, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Firefox 2.0.0.20. So, what did my version look like on your browser ? Was the formula above the line ? StuRat 04:51, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Without the forced align, IE7 has the text beneath the underbrace sitting right on the bottom of the line. That doesn't look nearly as bad as it does in FF or in Chrome, which I just checked, so out it goes. Thanx for the heads up, and the rest. Ntropyman 17:12, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome. Glad we could resolve this. StuRat 17:27, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

One other thought, you might want to track down the Edit Summary on changes made by seemingly reputable editors (hopefully including me) when they make seemingly bad edits, as there may be a reason for them, after all. I know I had many edits recently there, but the edit in question had the comment "-> Exponents: Moved formula onto same line as text": [1]. This would provide a clue that we were seeing different things, and contacting me on my talk page would help to figure out why there was a discrepancy. StuRat 17:35, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Scratch that, IE7 puts the brace, not the text, on the line. And dadgummit now that I've taken the align out, Chrome has damb underbrace on the line too, looks just like IE7. Eh bien, the page needed an honest-to-goodness mathematical definition, and now it has one. That what I really wanted, hang the alignment. If I can't please all browsers, I'll settle for causing the smallest offense to at least the three I know about. BTW some time ago I suggested WB copy this page to replace their much inferior one on exponents, and I'm gonna do that to these additions/revisions as well. I've got some other ideas in mind too, such as fleshing out the properties sction that I added with exposition and examples. But later, the code doesn't come natural to me and what I "learn" I don't retain, so I'm constantly relearning |'^( Ntropyman 17:59, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

WB = WikiBooks ? StuRat 18:03, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

That's it. The changes won't show there until reviewed and approved. 24.155.198.105 18:23, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

(You seem to be logged out.) Could you provide a link to the WB page in question ? StuRat 19:43, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Primary_Mathematics/Powers,_roots,_and_exponents
BTW I tried another format -- gives the impression of a formal definition without saying "here is the formal definition" Ntropyman 20:48, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Oh yea, I'd even edited that page, a long time back. StuRat 21:29, 25 April 2010 (UTC)