MATHalino.com

Simplified Solution to Problems in Strength of Materials

Romel Verterra — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:24:31 +0000

Strength of Materials Reviewer
I've been offline for more than a month and no updates were made at MATHalino.com, except for short stays answering some questions in both forums and comments. Most of my time was spent in printing, book binding, and securing for business permit. Now I am almost done, some of the books are released and available at Gillesania Engineering Review Center, Tacloban branch. Some are also offered at FaceBook.

Book Review: The Princeton Review’s “Math Smart”

Mariana Ashley — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 06:10:45 +0000

For those of us who don’t work in a math or science-related industry, the math skills we learned throughout school are rarely put to good use. Some of us can’t even remember how to work out a basic algebra problem or find the area of a square (no, seriously, it’s been that long for some people).

Having fun with GeoGebra

Romel Verterra — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 00:57:42 +0000

I learned about GeoGebra a year ago, although I like it in our first encounter, I was not able to explore it because I was at that time trying to learn another software. Now I cross GeoGebra again, and I was so eager to learn it and so I do the online tutorials listed in their website. The software is very easy to use, you can install it to your computer or you can use the online version without any installation. I completed the tutorial for beginners listed here and the tutorials outlined by Guillermo Bautista.

Updates and more updates

Romel Verterra — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:18:55 +0000

The painful experience
We've been in a roller coaster for the past several months here at MATHalino.com. First, we took the blog and forum sections down from being interactive because we received considerable amount of spam messages. Although most of the unwanted messages are filtered by our spam protection, it does affect the overall performance of the site that we need to close the commenting feature of both sections. We tried to look the issue closely but due to several constraints in debugging, we attempted to transfer the community into another section to start it fresh. Our attempt worked for a while, but after a week or two, we are again under the same attack. Looking closer and deeper into the issue, we identified the problem and we're able to counter it. Very big thanks to those who helped us resolved our issue, now both sections are up for commenting. For the attacker, whoever you are, please don't attack our site again, yes we are vulnerable but we don't have any business model here for you to take advantage.

How to Install TexLive to WebFaction Shared Hosting Account

Romel Verterra — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:04:27 +0000

What is TexLive?
You are reading this post probably because you know what TexLive and LaTex is, or maybe you are in search for a way to install LaTex for your website. But in case my assumption is wrong, LaTex is the math engine that render all the equations of MATHalino.com. If you want to know deeper, let the guys from LaTex and TexLive explain it to you. LaTex is a must if you run a website that engaged heavily in mathematical equations. Many are also using LaTex to convert their webpages into .pdf on the fly.

Why at WebFaction?
WebFaction is one of the few web hosting services that allow their costumers at shared environment to compile their own apps. In other web hosting company, you only have the ability to compile your own app if you are in a virtual private server or dedicated server. You know how costly these servers are compared to shared hosting. I will refer you to my old post if you want to learn a little more about WebFaction.

How to Make Math Add Up: A Brief Guide to Getting Better At Math

Mariana Ashley — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:57:39 +0000

Everybody has a talent, something they are innately good at without trying. My cousin, for example, could fit 35 marshmallows in his mouth and still say "fuzzy bunny." And yet, as outstanding as he was at that, he could not for his life solve an algebra problem—though he did have a funny joke about what mermaids wear.

Math is definitely one of those subjects that people either get completely or completely don't get, and sometimes it seems like the people who "get it" were just born that way.

But there are ways to improve your skills at math if you weren't born a wiz. Here are some pointers that should help you improve your math skills (and I'll bet that if you ask those people you think were born good at math, you'll probably find they do these things, too):

On How to Top the Board Exam

Romel Verterra — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 01:42:15 +0000

At the start of every review session, it is part of my routine to motivate students to perform in the best of their ability. I am not a motivational speaker, I simply share to my review students the principles lived by successful individuals who managed to act at their very best. I also throw to them the principles I personally believed that became instrumental in achieving my goals. What I'm sharing are things I picked up from reading, most of it are from entrepreneurs, investors, and sales persons. These things are less heard in engineering because most of the time, engineering students are bombarded with technical information in their stay at the university. My goal is to grow the seed of desire to top the board examination at the heart of my students, but most of all, I want them to live a successful life after their stay in the review center by holding positive mental attitude, a proper mind set, and the right character. Which only means that I want to make an impact to the life of my students in their short stay at the review center.

How to Integrate Using Microsoft Excel

Romel Verterra — Fri, 20 May 2011 01:52:49 +0000

I found an old .xls file from my backup drive which dates back to year 2004, 4 years before MATHalino.com was being online and 6 years before I start to blog. The file is about the length of arc of the function y = f(x) from x = a to x = b, and the area bounded by y = f(x) and the x-axis from x = a to x = b. The method used to find the length of arc and the area was integration. You may download the file and experiment with it, mess it up, download it again, revise it, claim it as your own, do anything to it, it's up to you. The link is provided below.

Best Calculator for Engineering Board Exam

Romel Verterra — Thu, 05 May 2011 09:38:49 +0000

Any one who took an engineering board examination will agree with me that scientific calculator is our best friend during the examination. It will speed up our work and will allow us to go through the analysis of the problem. In most cases, solving the equation is not the real issue, it is to write the correct equation that matters. If we are able to determine the correct equation of a particular situation, the burden of that problem is over. Our next step is obviously to solve for the desired value. It is important to note that the correct answer can only be derived from the correct equation. To determine the correct equation is where should our brain go, not in finding the solution of that equation. You guess it right, we use our best friend, the scientific calculator, to do the task. Don't do manual calculation please, the examiner will not give you bonus points in finding the roots of

manually. Calculator can easily solve for the value of θ fast and accurate.

Install Latex to a Shared Host

Romel Verterra — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 08:37:27 +0000

This post is intended for webmasters who wish to install Latex to their server without spending large amount of money for VPS or dedicated server. Experienced webmasters are aware that installing a root level script is not allowed in almost all shared hosting. That is why this post is not about how to install LaTex, I will simply introduce here the hosting provider that powered MATHalino.com. If you need a step-by-step guide, you can read how to install TexLive here.

You may noticed that this site is doing lot of math equations. These equations are written in Latex code, and the Latex engine will output the code into an equation.

My present host is WebFaction (WF). WF is a shared host that will allow you to install your own script. Any script won't matter to them as long as it is not illegal (phishing, virus, trojans, malware, etc). And as long that you will not exceed the limits imposed in all shared host; the run time memory. Latex can be easily installed, their online documentation is so vast and in full details, making me very confident of doing Linux from the command line.