Begin by clicking in either the red or blue pan. Enter an expression using either the keyboard or the keypad at the bottom of the work area.
Special Keypad Buttons
- Home will move the cursor to the beginning of the expression.
- End will move the cursor to the end of the expression.
- ← will move the cursor one character to the left.
- → will move the cursor one character to the right.
Notes on Entering Expressions
- Using the keyboard, multiplication should be entered using *.
- Using the keyboard, division should be entered using /.
- x2 and x3 are used to indicate squaring and cubing a number. They must be entered using the keypad. Each operation can be used only once.
- A number in front of parentheses is recognized as multiplication. For example: 3(4 + 8) is calculated as 3×(4 + 8).
- The result of your expression will be shown above the selected pan. Invalid entries are indicated with a message.
How to Use
- When you are finished entering an expression in one pan, click on the other pan to enter an expression. The pans will move up and down depending on which expression is greater. When the expressions are equivalent, the pans will balance and the full equation will be entered into the Balanced Equations table.
- At any point, you can click the Reset Balance button to remove the expressions from the pans. You can also click the Reset Table button to remove all equations from the table.