Components
Steemit has been a useful tool for educators for publishing their lessons and learning materials to help students as indicated by growing number of posts containing academic tutorials. However, as of the moment, it is inconvenient to post lessons concerning mathematics and related subjects (physics, chemistry, geometry) since this requires encoding complex mathematical symbols. Normally, teachers would write the symbols in a third-party math editor, convert it to an image, then paste it in their blogs. The process is tedious and can be improved.
Proposal
1.) Include a graphical user interface (GUI) for complex math symbols.
Mockups / Examples
Whenever a user wants to add a mathematical expression, the "Math Editor" button is clicked and a drop-down menu will appear containing math symbols.
2.) Incorporate a Google API
The proposal above may take time to implement. In the mean time, since most math educators are familiar with codes for in-line editors, my proposal is to incorporate this google API
https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?cht=tx&chl=[**Insert Code here**]
For example, if you type \int_{a}^{b}\sin x dx
Steemit takes this string to the URL mentioned above like this
https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?cht=tx&chl=\int_{a}^{b}\sin x dx
The result would be this and I propose the image would embed automatically to the steemit post.
Here are more examples
| Code | Result |
|---|---|
| \frac{dy}{dx} |  |
| x^2 |  |
| \log_{x}{2} |  |
| \Sigma_{i}{n}x2 |  |
Benefits
The proposal would make it more convenient to create posts with mathematical equations and would consequently promote more educational content in Steemit that could help millions of students thereby adding more value to the platform.
Credits: Mockup Image Source
Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors