Skip to content

Math Tools Help

Math Tools is a self-hosted, notebook-style computation tool — think of it as a lightweight scratchpad where you type a calculation and get a real, computed answer back, not a lookup or a canned example. It's available to all users (and other gated subjects over time) as part of an active subscription, and runs on infrastructure we host and license ourselves — nothing you type is sent to a third-party calculation service.

Access

Math Tools is enabled per subject. Currently available for Physical Sciences; more subjects will be enabled as their content is curated. If it's enabled for your subject, you'll see it in the sidebar and on relevant Study Library lesson cards. If not, the button/link simply won't appear yet.

Opening Math Tools

There are two ways in:

  1. Sidebar → Math Tool (see Navigation Help) — opens a fresh, blank notebook every time. Good for a quick, one-off calculation unrelated to any specific lesson.
  2. A Study Library lesson card's Math Tool button (only shown for subjects/ lessons where Math Tools is enabled) — opens a notebook tied to that specific lesson/concept. Clicking the same card again reopens the same notebook instead of starting a new one, so your work is picked up where you left it.

Either way, a notebook behaves like any other chat: it shows up in your sidebar history, so you can find and reopen it later without losing your work.

What is a "notebook" here?

A notebook is a sequence of cells. Each cell is one calculation you type in, and running it appends a result cell below — similar in spirit to a scientific notebook app, but running in your browser against a real computation engine on our servers. Cells in the same notebook share state: a variable you define in one cell is still available in a later cell in that same notebook, so you can build up a calculation step by step instead of repeating yourself.

How to enter a calculation

Type your calculation into a cell and run it. Two styles of input work:

  • Structured/symbolic input — the notebook understands a precise, structured computational language for expressing mathematical operations (integrals, derivatives, equation solving, plots, matrix operations, and so on). If you've used any symbolic-math or computer-algebra tool before, the style will feel familiar: function names capitalized, arguments in square brackets — for example, integrating sin(x)cos(x) is expressed as Integrate[Sin[x] Cos[x], x], and plotting a function over a range as Plot[Sin[x], {x, 0, 2 Pi}]. You don't need to already know this syntax to get value from the tool — see Using Math Tools for a fuller introduction, and natural-language input below is always there as an alternative.
  • Natural language — you can also just describe what you want in plain English (e.g. "integrate sin(x) cos(x) with respect to x", or "plot sine of x from 0 to 2 pi"). The notebook interprets your request and shows you what it understood before running it. See Using Math Tools for exactly how this works, including a second AI-assisted fallback if the first interpretation attempt doesn't understand your query.

What you can do

  • Symbolic and numeric computation — integrals, derivatives, equation solving, simplification, exact and approximate results.
  • Plots and graphics — 2D/3D plots render as real images directly in the notebook, with a click-to-expand view.
  • Multi-step, stateful calculations — define a variable or function in one cell, reuse it in later cells in the same notebook.
  • Natural-language input, with an AI-assisted fallback when the first attempt at understanding your query doesn't work out (see Using Math Tools for full detail on both).

See Using Math Tools for a detailed walkthrough of input style, reading output, session behavior, and known limitations.

Tips

  • Start simple. A short, unambiguous calculation is the fastest way to get comfortable with the input style before attempting something complex.
  • Reuse notebooks on purpose. If you're working through a multi-part problem, keep it in one notebook so later cells can reference earlier results — reopening the same lesson card's Math Tool button will take you back to that same notebook.
  • If a result looks unusual or overly symbolic (rather than a clean number), see Using Math Tools — some exact results (e.g. polynomial roots with no simple closed form) are genuinely meant to display that way.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Likely cause
Math Tool link/button doesn't appear Math Tools isn't enabled for that subject yet, or you don't have an active subscription — see Pricing.
A calculation returns an empty or blank-looking result The computation engine can occasionally need a moment to warm back up after being idle — wait a few seconds and re-run the cell. If it persists, contact support.
Reopening a notebook from your sidebar history shows a blank chat instead of the notebook Refresh the page — this is a known edge case in how the notebook view is restored and is actively watched for.
Natural-language input says it "couldn't interpret" your query Try rephrasing more simply, or use the "Retry with AI" option — see Using Math Tools.

Still stuck? Email support@examcatalyst.ai with what you were trying to calculate and, if possible, a copy of the cell content that didn't work as expected.