Maple Grading Issues: Scalar multiples of Vectors

Many answers in Linear Algebra should accept any non-zero multiple of the answer vector as correct. For example if the student is asked to find a normal vector $\overrightarrow{\mathit{v}}$ then any multiple $\mathit{\alpha }\overrightarrow{\mathit{v}}$ should also be correct (assuming $\mathit{\alpha }\ne 0$ ).

To do this you need to use the norms of your answer vector and the vector entered by the student. If you divide the components of a vector by its norm the result is a unit vector in the same direction. The idea then is to turn both your answer and the student response into such a unit vector, and compare the unit vectors.

Suppose the answer is the vector . Then your Maple grading code is as follows:

Incidentally, if you know the components of your vector you can have it display nicely in the "Answer" field as follows:

printf(MathML[ExportPresentation](Vector[column]([v1,v2,v3])))

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