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General Questions Q: What is this web site about? A: This web site is part of ThinkQuest web design contest. Our web site is about learning method. This site is designed for students to learn a general idea on how to prove and solve mathematics problems. We are using trigonometric identities as examples. This idea can be used on all kinds of mathematics problems or even in real world. For more information, please look at our introduction. A: ThinkQuest is a program in support of education and science formed by Advanced Network & Services, Inc. Please go to their web site for more information. Q: How much should I know about math? A: Our web site is designed for high school, and college students, with basic knowledge of trigonometry. Middle school students should get some help from teachers for better understanding. The idea we teach here can be used in any mathematics areas, from algebra, to calculus, or even higher. Technical Questions Q: Why do you have 3 different versions on your web site? Which one should I choose? A: I know you will ask this question. We designed our web site in 3 different versions for different browsers and connection speed. They have the same information. By choosing the right version that best fits your need, you can access information quickly and easily. The following information is about each version. Minimum requirements for
all versions: Light version: This version is designed for slow connections, or people who don't like to wait for downloading the web pages. This version uses tables for formatting. The graphics are only used for trigonometric identities. This version also uses Style Sheet, but it won't do anything if the browser can't read them. Average file size (includes graphics):
25KB Compatible browsers: Netscape
navigator 2.0 or Internet Explorer 2.0 or any browsers supporting
graphic and tables. Normal version: This version has the standard features as other web sites you see every day. It takes acceptable time to load. This version uses tables for formatting. Additional graphics are used. This version uses JavaScript and Style Sheet, but they won't do anything if the browser can't read them. If your browser crashes or other problems occur, you should use the Light version. Average file size (includes graphics):
58.62 KB Compatible browsers: Netscape
navigator 2.0 or Internet Explorer 3.0 or browsers supporting
graphics and tables. IE version: This version is designed only for Microsoft Internet Explorer. By using this version, you will find the links on the left menu of each page are expandable, which means you can go to any page on our web site with one click. This version uses tables for formatting. Additional graphics are used. This version uses JavaScript, DHTML and Style Sheet. If your browser crashes or other problems occur, you should use the Light version or Normal version. Average file size (includes graphics):
58.62 KB Compatible browsers:
Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher. Q: Why does the content look massed up? A: If you can see graphics correctly, but the content is massed up. If the top bar and left menu are not formatted on every page, that could mean your browser doesn't support tables. You should check with these browsers we recommend if possible. If the content is still not correctly displayed, please contact us. We will look at them and find the problems. Thank you. Q: Why does the link(s) not work (or link to the wrong page)? A: We've checked every link for several times in order to make sure they are good. If you find any link that is not working, or links to the wrong page, please contact us. We will fix them as soon as possible. Thank you. Q: Do you have Java on your web site? A: No. We do have JavaScript, but not Java. We don't use Java for several reasons. First of all, we can't find any reasons that we need it. Second, it causes problems in older browsers, even crashes. It usually takes more time to load, especially for people who are using slower computers or connections. When we designed our web site, we wanted to maximum the accessibility of our web site, and not to cause any visitor any problems. A: It could make a lot easier for us to use frames, but some people don't like frames, and some browsers don't support frames very well, so we decided not to use frames. A: Some old or text only browsers do not support graphics. If you know you should be able to view graphics in your browser, or you have seen graphics in your browsers before, then maybe you or someone else has disabled the loading of graphics. You should be able to find the related topic on how to enable it in the Help of your browser (tip: try type in "View" as the key word for search). Browsers Q: Which browser should I use? A: Usually different people like different browsers. It also depends on your computer system. For example, if you are using Windows, then you have more choices. If you are a member of AOL, then you can use their browser, which should display our site correctly. The best third party browsers in the market right now are Internet Explorer 4.01 from Microsoft, and Netscape Navigator 4.06 from Netscape Communications Corporation. You can get both of them for free. To download the newest version of both browsers, visit their web sites at: Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com Please note that our web site will look different in different browsers. Internet Explorer will take the advantages of our Style Sheet and DHTML. Netscape Navigator will use part of them. Both of them should display our web site correctly. Fonts Q: If I feel the fonts on your web pages are too small (or big), how can I change them? A: Different screen resolutions or settings will make fonts look different as well as the web page. However, it's very easy to change the font size in browsers. Here is how: For Internet Explorer 3.0 or higher: when you are visiting our web site, click the View menu on the tool bar of your browser , go to Fonts, then in the submenu you should be able to change the size of fonts, by choosing "Small", "Large" or others. You should see the font size is changing. When you are visiting other web site, you can change the fonts size back. For Netscape Navigator 4.0 or higher: when you are visiting our web site, click the View menu on the tool bar of your browser , then you should see "Increasing Font" and "Decreasing Font". Select one of them to change the fonts size. When you are visiting other web site, you can change the fonts size back. The font face commonly used on our web site is Arial. If you don't have it on your system, the browser will use the default font face to replace it. However, it may cause the web pages look incorrect. To change the font face you can follow the steps below. For Netscape Navigator 4.0 or higher: go to Edit menu, choose "Preferences". In the "Category" window you should find "Fonts" under "Appearance", choose it, then you will see the options that you can change. For information on other versions of browsers please look for related topics in the Help of that browser. BBS, Guest Book, Search Q: Why do I get an error message "Error 500" when I try to post message, or search? A: That usually means something is wrong with our Perl programs. If you tried for several times, and they all gave you the same error, then please contact us. We will try to solve the problem as soon as possible. Thank you. Q: Why didn't my message or entry appear after I posted it on BBS or Guest Book? A: Because some browsers have Cache feature, which means if you want to see the changes of a web page in a short period of time, you have to refresh or reload the web page. Q: Why did some messages have been removed on BBS? A: Usually we will not do that, but if there is any message that is totally unrelated to our topic, or invades other people, we will remove it. To report these kind of messages, please contact us. Thank you. Q: Can I post graphics on the BBS? A: Yes, the graphic link field can be used for this purpose. For example, you can use it to post problems that can not be written in text. A: The only field that allows to use HTML is Comment field. You will be able to format your message by using HTML. HTML codes will not work in other fields. RealAudio A: RealAudio is a new steaming audio format introduced by RealNetwork, Inc. Streaming audio can be listened while being downloaded. So even with a slow connection, it still can be listened at realtime. RealPlayer is required to listen RealAudio, best of all, it's free for everyone and it has different versions to support different platforms. You can go to their web site for more information. Q: I have a slow connection, is there any way I can let the audio load faster? A: I think we can say "yes". When we made the audio, we thought about how much time it would take to load the audio. After tested on different connection speed, we found that it's possible to let the audio load faster. Here is how: Start RealPlayer (or RealPlayer Plus), go to View(1) menu, select Preferences, in the General(2) window, you should see "PerfectPlay/BufferedPlay" at the bottom. Under there you have two options to choose from, one is "Buffer at least <blank> seconds before playing", and the other one is "Buffer entire clip up to available memory." If the default is the second option, you will wait a longer time to load the audio. But if you choose the first option, and specify 20 or 10 seconds in that blank box, you will be able to listen the audio after 20, 10 or even 5 seconds buffer. It depends on your connection speed, if the audio stops when you listen to it, try to set the buffer time longer, and try again, until it works fine. Note that in RealPlayer G2: |
