Open Source Visual Basic .NET Mathematics Software

ARO has been developed to assist physically disabled or injured students who cannot create mathematical drawings on paper. It is intended to make maths up to Key Stage 4 more accessible. AQA has agreed to its use in a GCSE maths exam. Anyone who can use a computer with a mouse to access the internet should be able to use ARO. The processes required mimic those of on paper drawing as far as possible. Possible applications include: Graphs of straight lines and smooth curves Compass and ruler constructions Scatter graphs Stem and leaf displays Box plots Histograms Pie charts Simple diagrams. The structure of each drawing is built from individual components which can be placed on the drawing grid without great accuracy. Each can then be positioned exactly using onscreen buttons. The ruler and the protractor can be aligned with any straight line. Drawings can be created on imported background bitmaps. The author was a mathematics lecturer at Plymouth University.