For the power searcher, you can supply a keyword, or check a box, or both.For extra help with choosing keywords, see Searching DOs and DON'Ts (below).
Keyword controls:
- If you select the button for:
- Find all keywords, in any order,
- you will get items that contain all your words, no matter what order they're in on the pages. Example: search for light speed with this button to find items about light speed, which might also appear as "speed of light." This button is the equivalent of the Boolean operator AND.
- at least one,
- you will get items that contain any of your words. Example: search for dynamical chaotic with this button to look up dynamical or chaotic systems, since a page about them may mention only one of these terms. This button is the equivalent of the Boolean operator OR. Of the first three buttons, this choice will return the most items.
- If you select the button for:
- parts of words
- you will get any entry containing that string of letters. Example: logic will find logical, logician, topological, illogical, homological, and morphological, among others.
- whole words
- you will get precisely the word(s) for which you are searching.
- If you select the button for:
- case insensitive
- the searcher will return both capitalized and uncapitalized instances of your keywords.
- case sensitive
- the searcher will pay attention to the capitalization in your keywords. Example: an organization that goes by the acronym INPUT. If you don't remember that INPUT stands for Innovative Programs Using Technology, you might use this button to avoid getting lists of software and computer science sites in your returns.
Other controls:
Find author(s):
- Not all sites identify their authors. If a Web page does not list its author(s), we list the organization name where available. For example, Ask Dr. Math is run by the Math Forum, so the Math Forum appears as the author of the Ask Dr. Math pages.
Find items added or modified between (mm/dd/yy): ____ and ____
- You may leave one date field blank: to search for recent items, enter a recent date in the first field; the search will return items entered or modified after that date. (These dates refer to when the Math Forum added or modified a Library entry; they do not relate to any maintenance done at the actual site. No date is earlier than 10/26/98, as that was the date when we began work on the new Library.)
Level and categories: Level, Language, Resource Type, Math Topic,
Ed. Topic
- If you check two or more boxes within a category, such as Audiovisuals and Courses (which are both in Ed. Materials in the Resource Type section), you will get all items listed in Audiovisuals and all items listed in Courses.
- If you check boxes in two or more different bold categories (such as Ed. Materials and Net-Based Resources, both in the Resource Type section), you will only get items listed as belonging to both categories.
- If you check a parent category, that is, a category containing subcategories, all its subcategories are also searched. So if you're searching in Audiovisuals, you'll also find items in Audio, Graphics, Multimedia, and Video. Searching Ed. Materials finds items in Audiovisuals through Textbooks, and all of the subcategories of those categories, too.
Sort by: date/title/author
- Sorting by date returns items beginning with the most recent.
- Sorting by title returns items ordered alphabetically by title, excluding "a," "an," and "the."
- Sorting by author returns items in alphabetical order by the first word listed in the author field, which could be "Paul" as in "Paul Bourke" or "Dept." as in "Dept. of Statistics, University of Florida."
Items per page: (25/50/100/200)
- You may adjust the number of items returned on each page; the default is 50. If your search generates more items than will fit on one page, multiple pages will be returned.
Searching DOs and DON'Ts
DO
- Double-check your spelling if your search generates no returns.
- Search for the singular form of your term on a first search: if you search for Mersenne primes, you'll miss sites like Mersenne Prime freeware.
- If you get too many results, try narrowing your search, perhaps by spelling out the full word you're searching for, or adding another term likely to be found in a page on your topic.
- Spell out ordinal number keywords such as first and second, since 1st and 2nd won't return as many matches.
- If you are searching for specific equations or constants, write out the name of the equation or constant, or of some component(s) of the equation. Searching for e=mc^2 won't find anything helpful. It's better to search for Einstein relativity theory or energy mass speed light using the "all, in any order" button.
DON'T
- Don't use common words like the, and, a, or of, except in exact phrase searches. Note that "math" is a common word at the Math Forum!
- Don't do Boolean searches, since our searcher doesn't make use of special search terms such as AND, OR, NOT, +, or -.
- Don't submit equations to be computed, since our searcher is not a calculator. Instead, try searching our Calculators category in the Resource Type section of the Library.
- Don't ask questions such as "How do you find the area of a cone?" Our searcher doesn't understand English. Search for formula area cone using the "Find all keywords, in any order" button, or instead try searching or browsing Ask Dr. Math.
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