Simple question I think

[Will Morgan]

Hi,

I am relatively new to using NUMBAS and am consistently running into a particular type of issue around relatively simple Mathematical expressions type questions. My most recent version of this is that when I set up a question such as finding the HCF between two simple algebraic expressions such as 3*x^4*y^5 and 9*x^1*y*7 NUMBAS will mark the student input of 3xy^5 as incorrect. I haven't been able to find an answer to this issue anywhere in the documentation. I suspect that it is because I am not understanding something quite fundamental!

Cheers,

Will Morgan

[samuel...@gmail.com]

Its hard to know without seeing exactly, however the first thing I would check would be in the 'restrictions' section- you want xy to be interpreted as x*y (I'd have thought the answer preview showed this)- you might choose to checkl 'force single letter variable names'

If its not that I'm unlikely to be of further use!

Cheers

[Christian Lawson-Perfect]

Hi Will,

I think that the answer 3x*y^5, with an asterisk between the x and y, would be accepted

By default, Numbas will interpret a string of several letters as a single variable name. You should try turning on the setting "Force single letter variable names". See https://docs.numbas.org.uk/en/latest/question/parts/mathematical-expression.html#term-Force-single-letter-variable-names.

If that's not the problem, please give me a link to your question in the editor and I'll have a look.

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[Will Morgan]

Thanks both - that appears to have fixed it.

Cheers,

Dr Will Morgan
Academic Skills Adviser (Maths)
301 Academic Skills Centre
Student & Academic Services
University of Sheffield
301 Glossop Road
Sheffield, S10 2HL

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/mash

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/academic-skills

My working days are Tuesday  (9am-6pm), Wednesday (8:30am-3pm) and Thursday (9am-4pm).

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