Error Propogator Calculator

Output of the program with an equation provided along with numerical values.

Inspiration

As first-year engineering students, we encountered a common struggle—endless hours spent grappling with the intricacies of error propagation equations. Our challenges included navigating complex partial derivatives and deciphering Gaussian errors. So we decided to make a calculator that would do the error propogation for us.

What it does

This program derives the Gaussian error equation for any given equation and it can also calculate the numerical value of error in an equation given values of all the variables and their respective errors. This is very useful for introductory physics courses.

How we built it

First we parsed the input that user provides using sympy and we turned the equation into a sympy object. Using sympy we derived the partial derivative of the function with respect to the all variables. We then converted our sympy objects that contain the partial derivatives into latex and displayed that onto the website. Afterwards we manipulated the partial derivatives according to the Gaussian error equation and showed the work step by step on the website by converting each step into latex. Finally, if the user entered numerical values of all the variables and their respective errors, the program plugs all the data into the final derived error equation and outputs the numerical error in the given equation.

Challenges we ran into

One of the major challenges we ran into was converting latex to sympy objects because sympy only supports the conversion from sympy objects to latex. So we had to find our own way to do the conversion and that consumed majority of our time. Another challenge was working with the MecSimCalc website as none of us had used it before, so we had to look into the documentation and understand it before we could dive into coding our project. Another challenge was getting around the conditional inputs because only the premium version allowed it so we a text parser to get the input.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very proud of making this calculator in the first place and the program works with ANY equation and ANY amount of variables. If a student was to do error propogation of an equation with more than 5 variables it would certainly take over an hour while our program will do it instantly. We are also proud of working as team together and splitting up the work properly.

What we learned

A skill we learned during this hackathon was how to manage workload amongst us and how to work together as a team. We also learned a lot about the sympy library and latex. We gained the skills to use latex and sympy in a useful manner which are highly transferable skills useful in mathematics, programming, and physics.