software > Spotter

Spotter is a program that lets students check their answers to math and science questions. It handles symbolic as well as numerical answers. The software is free and open source.

To try a demonstration of spotter, click here and follow the link to the demonstration.

If you're a student using my books who wants to use Spotter to check your answers to the problems, you can go ahead and do it without installing any special software, click here.

I got the idea for Spotter from LON-CAPA, which is also free and open-source. The programs are alike in some ways and different in others. There is another program called WeBWorK that also does similar things, and is also free and open-source. UT has a popular free online service, which sounds convenient for instructors to use, independent of their choice of textbook; it isn't open-source, and doesn't handle symbolic math.

The current version of Spotter is 2.4.2.

spotter.tar.gz -- source code

article.pdf -- a brief article describing the software, which appeared in the November 2003 issue of The Physics Teacher.

doc.pdf -- complete documentation