Using free open source software for intelligent geometric computing

Abstract

This paper describes some examples of fruitful cooperation between geometric software tools (in particular, GeoGebra) and a free open source computer algebra system, Sage (Software for Algebra and Geometry Experimentation). We collect some of our efforts for enhancing mathematics education via technologically rich environments. We show that a math teacher with no specialized programming knowledge can mix widespread resources to get motivating new teaching tools. Furthermore, we explore an exciting but barely used (even known!) characteristic of Sage: its use as a remote kernel. We test it by computing symbolic tasks in a dynamic geometry prototype that are currently out of scope of standard dynamic geometry software. Finally, we illustrate the development of web-based geometric resources by communicating GeoGebra and Sage through Javascript.