Math word-problem solver
I want to write a program in which you put a word problem in as input, and it returns the answer. Is this possible, or am I just over-ambitious? And if it is possible, how difficult will it actually be?
What do you mean by word problem? Do you mean math? because that would be easy, But if you mean riddles or something like that it would be almost impossible.
I wouldn't say a word problem would necessarily be easy fabtasticwill. An equation would be fairly trivial depending on how complex the equation but solving a word problem would be hard as you would have to parse it and they could be worded differently.
You can actually get some good inroads into this problem, but you'd need a large sample base to analyze before being able to get very far.
But there would still need to be some serious limitations on the format and formulation of the problem data, otherwise the problem is NP-hard.
Sorry.
But there would still need to be some serious limitations on the format and formulation of the problem data, otherwise the problem is NP-hard.
Sorry.
@fabtasticwill
I do mean math word problem.
I was thinking about having it search for keywords like "sum" or "solve for x" and things like that. And once it found what it was going to be solving for, I wanted the program to find the necessary information to solve it. Would that be the best approach, or is there a more efficient way to do it?
| What do you mean by word problem? Do you mean math? |
I was thinking about having it search for keywords like "sum" or "solve for x" and things like that. And once it found what it was going to be solving for, I wanted the program to find the necessary information to solve it. Would that be the best approach, or is there a more efficient way to do it?
Take a look at this: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=x^2+%2B+y^2+%3D+r^2+solve+for+y
Wolfram's thing is cool, but it doesn't exactly solve word problems like these:
http://www.mathplayground.com/wpdatabase/MDLevel2_7.htm
http://www.mathplayground.com/wpdatabase/MDLevel2_7.htm
If you knew EXACTLY how it was going to be worded, it wouldn't be that difficult.
Last edited on
Yes it would. Wording is only a small part of the problem.
[edit] That is, words have a tremendous degree of flexibility, and deciphering what is being asked is like asking a computer what objects are in a picture.
[edit] That is, words have a tremendous degree of flexibility, and deciphering what is being asked is like asking a computer what objects are in a picture.
Last edited on
| deciphering what is being asked is like asking a computer what objects are in a picture. |
http://googleresearch.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/a-picture-is-worth-thousand-coherent.html
*cough*
Last edited on
Topic archived. No new replies allowed.