Extending the Class of Mathematical Problems Solvable in School

Abstract

The problems of practical importance which are considered in school today necessarily have to lead to a mathematical model that can be solved by school mathematics knowledge. This includes systems of equations of at most second degree, some simple trigonometry and/or some basic geometry.This restricts severely the class of such problems and conveys theimpression that mathematics is not applicable enough. We provide examples ofproblems related to practice which are difficult to solve by means of traditional schoolmathematics but are amenable for solving (at least with a certain precision) with the use of software systems dealing with mathematical problems.We also present the results of an experiment with such problems that were given toschool students participating in the second round of the competition “VIVA Mathematics with Computer”.ACM Computing Classification System (1998): K.3.1.