Both Chris and Matt have taken Numerical Computing course-work. The Java experience of our team will enable us to write the needed Java applets to create the work-bench. The purpose of the program would be to demonstrate to students the concept of adding and subtracting negative numbers. The center of the screen contains a large box with a line in the middle. This line represents the zero point.
Workers move red and blue boxes back and forth from two stacks.
One is red, the other blue. Red and blue boxes represent two numbers entered by the student. The number four would be represented by four boxes stacked above a line in the middle of the screen. The number negative two would be represented by two boxes below the line. Addition works by sliding the blue boxes up to extend from the top-most block of the red stack.