Follow-up Questions

Even after a problem has been solved and all open questions have been answered, AutoMathic prompts with "Anything else?" to allow further dialogue.

• If any additional dialogue would be totally unrelated to the current situation, then it could very well be handled in a new AutoMathic session.  (Considering the limited namespace for variables, limiting a session to a cohesive topic is a good idea in general).

However if additional questions are related to the current situation, then they fall under the category of follow-up questions.

In the previous section, very simple follow-up questions used a pronoun to refer to the last result.  Follow-up questions were strung together to build-up a calculation bit-by-bit.

In addition to those kinds of trivial follow-up questions, there are three basic categories of follow-up questions.  Each type will be demonstrated using this sample initial situation:

> Find the cost when the price is 12.99.

   Let 'C' stand for "COST"

   (Find C)

   Let 'P' stand for "PRICE"

               P = 12.99

       P = 12.99

Anything else?

> no

 I know that COST IS PRICE PLUS TAX
 I know that TAXES ARE 8.25% OF THE PRICE

   Let 'T' stand for "TAX"

   So...
               C = P + T

   So...
                   8.25 P
               T = ------
                    100  


                   8.25 P
               T = ------
                    100  

       T = 1.071675

               C = P + T

       C = 14.061675

   14.061675 is THE COST.

Anything else?

> !list

 (Eq. 1)
               C = P + T

 (Eq. 2)
                   8.25 P
               T = ------
                    100  

   Where 'C' stands for COST
   Where 'P' stands for PRICE
   Where 'T' stands for TAX

       P = 12.99
       T = 1.071675
       C = 14.061675

1. No Change
• New information is requested based on existing assumptions and information.
  

2. Simple Change
• Information is requested based on new assumptions from changing existing variable assignment(s).
  

3. Complex Change
• Information is requested based on changes in the relationships between quantities.

It is always safe to ask follow-up questions that involve either No Change, or Simple Changes involving one or more quantities (i.e. variables).

However, some Complex Change follow-up questions introduce inconsistencies that are too incompatible with the current situation to be handled cleanly or easily...  Given the difficulty of performing Complex Changes correctly, it may be better to avoid Complex Changes if possible and simply restate the problem (with the changed relationships) in a new session!