CrunchJr
Computational Stories
(Screen Shots)
This page presents a series of samples of CrunchJr
uses. Most are common computational problems which are solved
with CrunchJr on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod/Touch.
Three of the samples are in Quick–mode
(under the [MiniApps] tab),
six are in PowerUser–mode
(under the [Crunch] tab), and the first
screen and the last two are just general information.
Quick–mode is very popular
with users (simpler interface, less typing),
but PowerUser–mode is much more
powerful. Most computational problems can be solved in
either mode, but PowerUser–mode provides
variables (with one or more values for each), can save the results
for later use, and provides for User-defined functions (among
other advantages).
The examples use a Storyboard format – with a short description
and set of screen shots. A simple navigation scheme
allows you to view selected samples in any order.
Navigation Grid
Initial Screens –
a peek at the first screens a user will see.
- Screen 1 – this is the screen one will see upon
first startup. Subsequent startups use the next screen.
- Screen 2 – this is a typical "returning user" startup
screen. Scroll down to see the remainder of the stats.
- Screen 3 – tapping the [Inputs] tab
delivers this screen, which provides paths to a variety of input
information.
- Screen 4 – tapping the [Info] tab
delivers this screen, which leads to a wealth of support
information. Scroll down to see the other items.
MiniApp: Body Mass Index (BMI) –
a measure of weight for height and its implications. Consider
a 5' 10½" male weighing 170 pounds.
- Screen 1 – tap the [MiniApps] tab
to arrive here (a list of all the MiniApp Domains).
Tap the Health & Fitness entry.
- Screen 2 – this is a list of all the Health & Fitness
MiniApps. Tap the Body Mass Index
entry.
- Screen 3 – this is the top half of the Body Mass Index
MiniApp page, displaying a brief description and the arguments.
Scroll down.
- Screen 4 – this page shows the arguments for Body Mass
Index. Leave the units button as is (Imperial means use pounds
and inches). Tap the "weight" box and enter 170. Tap
the "height" box and enter 70.5, then tap the [Submit] button.
- Screen 5 – this is the results page, displaying the input,
the computed result, and a description of what the result means.
The result of 24.1 is in the Normal Range. Tap the "BMI"
button on the top left to get back to the previous page.
- Screen 6 – change the 170 to 215, and tap [Submit] again.
- Screen 7 – this result of 30.4 is in the Overweight Range.
Crunch: Body Mass Index (BMI) –
investigate different weights. This computation zeroes in on
the weight a 5' 10½" male needs to get down to
in order to get into the Normal Range.
- Screen 1 – tap the [Crunch] tab
to arrive here, and enter the expression bmi( wt, 70.5 )
into the [Submit] box. Note that as you type,
CrunchJr populates the bottom panel with the prototype
for the BMI function. In this expression, wt is a variable
which can accept 1 or more values. Tap the [Submit] button.
- Screen 2 – Enter 175, 180, 185, 190, 195, 200, 205
into the wt box (some values have scrolled off the left
in the screen shot below). Tap [Submit].
- Screen 3 – This screen shows the BMI values for the seven
different values for weight, suggesting that about 186 pounds would
put this man back in the Normal Range.
Crunch: A simple expression with 1
variable – show how to use a simple expression.
- Screen 1 – tap the [Crunch] tab
to arrive here, and enter the expression
omega*cos(omega^3*halfpi)
into the [Submit] box. Note that as you type,
CrunchJr populates the bottom panel with some useful
information: one Constant (HALFPI); one Variable (omega),
used twice; one function (Cos), along with the prototype for the Cos
function. Tap the [Submit] button.
- Screen 2 – Enter 4 values: 5.86, pi, 11.2, 71
into the omega box (note that the constant PI is a valid
number). Tap [Submit].
- Screen 3 – This screen shows the four result values.
Also, the Show OpCount/Time option has been turned on, and it
shows that there were 320 basic operations in the computation itself,
and the interpreted computation took about 54 microseconds. Note
that the basic operations are (+, -, *, /, shift, compare),
computation times vary widely (even for the same expression),
and there are many more operations associated with rendering the output
into human readable form (these operations are not part of
OpCount) than in the computation itself.
- Screen 4 – This screen shows the same result as Screen 3,
but this time the Show Stats option has been turned on
(the OpCount data is still there – below the Stats).
Crunch: A simple equation with 2
variables – show how to use a simple equation.
An equation takes the form var = expression,
where the expression can use any variables except
var. After the evaluations, all the values for var
are kept in the
Store, where they are availble for later use.
- Screen 1 – tap the [Crunch] tab
to arrive here, and enter the expression alpha =
sqrt2*(beta*sin(x/4))
into the [Submit] box. Note that as you type,
CrunchJr populates the bottom panel with some useful
information: one Constant (SQRT2); three Variables
(alpha, beta, x);
one function (Sin), along with the prototype for the Sin function.
Tap the [Submit] button.
- Screen 2 – Enter three values: 1, 3.11, .7311
into the beta box, and five values: 2, 7, 0.45, -2, 11
into the x box. Tap [Submit].
- Screen 3 – This screen shows the 15 result values (scroll
down to see the last value). The 15 values for the result
variable (alpha) are retained in
the
Store for later use. When alpha is used
in an expression, those 15 values are automatically available (the
user can modify or ignore them).
MiniApp: Solve 3 equations in 3
unknowns – using
Quick–mode we can quickly solve
a set of equations (PowerUser–mode could
be just as easily used). Consider these three equations:
- 2x + 4y + 5.55z = –3
- 5x – z = 8
- 0.99x + 0.6y + z = 2.3
- Screen 1 – tap the [MiniApps] tab,
then tap the Basic Math entry, and scroll down
and tap Solver to arrive here. Note that
tapping the [+Fav] button on the upper right
allows quicker future navigation to this screen.
- Screen 2 – Scroll down a little, then tap 3 for the
value of N, and enter the terms of the 3 equations in the
vals box. The terms must be separated by commas.
Then tap [Submit].
- Screen 3 – This screen shows the input values and
the results.
Crunch: Mortgage payoff strategy
– consider a partly paid off mortgage with
an outstanding balance or $195,600, with a 5.2% loan and a monthly
mortgage payment of $1,106. What impact would paying a little
more with each monthly payment have on total out-of-pocket cost
for the house? Look at 4 values for the extra payment ($50,
100, 150, 200).
- Screen 1 – tap the [Crunch] tab
to arrive here, and enter the expression payoff2( 1106, 5.2,
195600, x) into the [Submit] box. Note that as you type,
CrunchJr populates the bottom panel with the prototype
and description of the Payoff2 function as a reminder of the
arguments. Tap the [Submit] button.
- Screen 2 – Enter 4 values: 50, 100, 150, 200
into the x box (x represents the extra amount
added to each monthly payment). Tap [Submit].
- Screen 3 – This screen shows the results.
By paying $200 extra with each monthly payment, the loan is paid off
almost 8 years early, with a total out-of-pocket savings of about $55K.
- Screen 4 – This screen shows the same result as Screen 3,
but this time showing the bottom part of the result.
MiniApp: Complex Division –
arithmetic with complex numbers.
- Screen 1 – tap the [MiniApps] tab,
then scroll down and tap
the Complex Numbers entry
to arrive here (a list of all the Complex Number MiniApps).
Tap the Complex Division entry.
- Screen 2 – this is the data entry section for the
Complex Division MiniApp, displaying a brief description and
the arguments. To find the value of (7 +
11i)/(1 + 3i),
enter 7, 11 in the x box, and 1, 3 in the
y box and tap [Submit].
- Screen 3 – this page shows the arguments for this
case, the result (4 - i), and some explanatory text.
- Screen 4 – to verify, go back to Screen 1 and tap
the Complex Mulitply entry. Then
enter 7, 11 in the x box, and 4, -1 in
the y box, and tap [Submit].
- Screen 5 – Here we see the expected result
(7 + 11i)
Crunch: approximate numerical
integration – integrate the expression:
x² sin(
x) from
x = 1.7 to 1.9
- Screen 1 – tap the [Crunch] tab
to get here. Enter integrate( 1.7, 1.9, x^2*sin(x))
into the box. Tap the [Submit] button.
- Screen 2 – here we see the approximate result of the
integration. If the computation had not converged, the
convergence information would have been displayed (and the
result would have been suspect).
- Screen 3 – this page shows the same result as Screen 2,
except that the Quadrature function was used. Both these
functions use the same code to approximate the result, but
Quadrature always lists the convergence information.
Crunch: Error detection
CrunchJr catches errors in four places: during typing,
during semantic analysis, during variable value determination, and at
run-time (when the expression is being evaluated). This section
gives several examples of errors and their associated messages.
Note that the error screens are bright yellow (although this color
is user-settable).
- Screen 1 – detects a simple typo – sqrr
is not a valid function name. This error is detected during
typing.
- Screens 2,3 – an error is detected for this simple expression
during semantic analysis – sqrt is allowed
only one argument.
- Screens 4,5,6 – a simple expression is entered, data is
presented to it, and then two errors are caught at run-time.
The other cases are tabulated.
- Screens 7,8 – an incorrect number of arguments to
the MatrixInv function is detected during semantic analysis.
- Screens 9,10 – an unrecognizable sequence is detected
during semantic analysis.
Screens 11,12 – mismatched parentheses are detected during
semantic analysis.
Screen 13 – an illegal sequence is detected during typing
Search – samples of the
CrunchJr Search capability, which employs a simple,
single-keyword search. Results are tabulated on the fly
beginning with the third character. There are four collections
of information which
can be searched: Functions, Constants, Screens, and (All 3).
- Screen 1 – tap the [Inputs] tab,
then tap the Functions entry.
- Screen 2 – this is the list of all the Functions –
if the Search bar isn't showing, just scroll up. Enter
a string into the Search bar. Results show up starting
at the third character of the search string.
- Screen 3-6 – these four screens show the results of
4 different searches.
- Screen 7 – tap the [Inputs] tab,
then tap the Constants entry.
- Screen 8 – this is the list of all the Constants –
if the Search bar isn't showing, just scroll up. Enter
the string "dist" into the Search bar. Results show up starting
at the third character of the search string.
- Screen 9 – this is the list of all the Constants which
match the keyword "dist."
- Screen 10 – tap the [Info] tab
to get here. This is the main Info screen.
then tap the All Screens entry.
- Screen 11 – this is the list of all the Screens. Most
of them have multiple access pathways. Enter "area" into
the Search bar.
- Screen 12 – this is the list of all the screens which
match the keyword "area."
- Screen 13 – tap the [Search] tab
to get here. This is the main Search screen. Enter a
string into the search bar – this will initiate a search
across all the Functions, Constants, and Screens.
- Screen 14 – this is the list of all the hits for
the string "mass" (actually there are 19 hits). The blue
entries are Functions, Green are Constants, and Red are Screens.
- Screen 15 – this is the list of all the hits which
match the keyword "pow" (6 Functions, 2 Screens).
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