My favourite Maths Android Apps.

I recently got an android smartphone - I didn't get what I really wanted - an HTC7, or Desire, but went for the cheaper San Francisco from Orange - apparently the same as the ZTE Blade (or so I'm told).

It's camera isn't stunning, and it has a slightly irritating tendency to drop its wireless at the drop of a hat, but it does the job. I can make and recieve calls, and texts, and it can run everything i've downloaded from the Android App market.

Once I got the games I wanted sorted (Angry Birds is maths / physics based - honest) I've started to think about how I can use it as a classroom tool - for me, and how students can use their phones (at home more than at school) to help check their work. As you can tell from the fact that I balked at paying for a better phone, I don't really want to shell out more than I need to, so most of these will be free apps.

Here are a few of my thoughts.

1. Quickmark. A nice straightforward QR reader. Will also create them (All the codes on this page were created with it) and store the history of searches. Nice simple interface, and easy to use. I do realise there is an irony in the adding of a QR code link to a QR reader... I'm still slightly unconvinced about QR Codes, above and beyond gimmick value. I'm going to continue to use them and develop their use in school. Our Head of Transition and I are working on a QR trail for open evening this year, to enrich the whole process. That'll be a seperate blog.
2. Algeo. I've only recently discovered this particular gem. I was trying to demonstrate non linear simultaneous equations, and why they have more than one pair of solutions. Usually I use Autograph or Omnigraph on my laptop and Smart board, but I was not near it. Algeo is a graph plotter - up to three graphs at once, with zoom. It's only y=f(x), so circles etc an issue, but trig graphs work (and it defaults to radians). You can zoom, pan, and even trace. It won't work out intersections, so you'll need to zoom close enough to have a look properly, but it illustrates things nicely, and will help students with double checking their curve sketching.
3. Integration and Differentiation. This really is a student app. It's a self assessment app that puts a few questions on the screen, and students differentiate or integrate them. Click on the question, and it gives the answer. From a quick play it seems to cover a fair bit of the A level maths specs as they currently are.
4. RealCalc. A scientific Calcultaor. Better than the built in calculator, but still not what I really want. It is oldfashioned in that you do "70 sin" instead of "sin 70", and there is no fraction button. I guess what I am after is something more like the casio that most students seem to have these days. If anyone finds one, drop me a line!
5. Solver. Solve's quadratics equations. Does what it says on the tin. Even copes admirably with complex solutions.
6.Triangle Solver. Solves traingles. Put in the three bits of info you know (combinations of sides and angles) and it tells you the other three (and even produces a nice little sketch). Only needs a combination of Sine and Cosine rule, but again, useful for checking answers (for me and them!)
No discussion of maths apps would be complete without a discussion of Wolfram|Alpha. When the iphone app was first produced at an astronomical price tag (£50 rings a bell, but I'm not 100% on that) I couldn't imagine needing it - the mobile web version is still free and simple (ish) to use. Then I bought it in a sale (79p) for my ipod touch. It is brilliant, as you get a much richer keyboard, for symbols integrals etc. The price is currently about £1.20 on android, and so far I've resisted. I suspect its only a matter of time though.

What Apps have I missed. What should I (or my students) not be without to make our mathematical lives simpler?