Riemman Sum Calculator

Screenshot

Inspiration

We built this to really help understand how Riemann Sums work which are the fundamental approach to solving integrals. The inspiration for it came from our Calculus 2 class where we thought we needed a tool to help us since we were struggling with this topic and since it forms the basis for learning integration, it was of utmost importance to come up with a nifty solution. Additionally, it solves a pesky prototype textbook and assignment problem.

What it does

Our program is capable of receiving a polynomial function as an input, along with the relevant bounds and conditions. It outputs the result of the Riemann Sum.

How I built it

With blood, sweat, and tears (and glucose from all the free bagels).

Challenges I ran into

Being our first Hackathon, and our first attempt at programming as part of a group, the project was littered with many challenges and difficulties. The main issue may have been agreeing on a suitable project with the rest of the group. A considerable amount of time was used up settling on an idea we all deemed was worthy, and suitable to our capabilities. This program was actually the third project we attempted. Third time's the charm?

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

After an afternoon of discussion, sugar crashes, and compiler crashes, we finally managed to get our act together, and agree on a project we could all benefit from and contribute to. We managed to have fun and, somehow, actually create a final product.

What I learned

We learned various skills from this project. First and foremost, it became apparent to us how vital effective teamwork is in this area. Technically, we learned about the existence of applets and JFrames, and their importance in making a usable GUI to replace text-based interactions. We touched up our general Java skills.