Question

Does anyone else experience a "crash" of the Socratic answer if you include too many formulas or graphs?

When I answer trig graphing questions, I like to show a "basic graph" of the function - for example, `y=sinx`, and then walk through and show the changes step by step to the graph. But if I put in another graph, I find that more often than not the answer freezes and all I can do is leave the site. Does anyone else experience this? Is there a way around it?

Answer 1

Yes, that does indeed happen with the graphs.

Explanation:

The math formatting does not create problems, at least not that I know of, but the graphs do cause the answers to freeze.

As you've noticed, that tends to happen when more than one graph is added to the answer. The good thing is that you can easily bypass it without having to leave the page / site.

One quick solution would be to simply add all your graphs after you've finished writing the answer. I used to do that sometimes, and it pretty much works every time, meaning that you can add them without the page slowing down too much.

Another solution would be to simply deactivate the graphs so that they don't appear in the Preview section. This will allow you to add the graphs as you're writing the answer.

To do that, simply break the syntax of the graph by inserting a random character in there.

So, for example, this is the graph for `sinx`.

graph{sinx [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

To deactivate it, I can simply insert a blank space between graph and { -- I'll use a red 'a' character for illustration purposes

graph`color(red)(a)`{sinx [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

Now the graph is set on the page, but it's no longer being loaded in the preview. This allows you to continue to work on the answer without having to worry about the page slowing down or even freezing.

When you're finished writing the answer, simply remove the red 'a' character and post.

You can now add as many graphs as you want -- all of these have blank spaces between graph and {

graph {x^2 [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

graph {x^3 [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

graph {x + 2 [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

graph {4x + 7 [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

graph {tanx [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

Keep in mind that you must "activate" the graphs when you're ready to post the answer, otherwise your page will freeze again! :)