# Introducing MathQA -- A Math-Aware Question Answering System

Source: [Introducing MathQA -- A Math-Aware Question Answering System](<https://www.sota2.com/research/paper/68fa65fc1e209131cea0dbbe>)

Collection index: [llms.txt](<https://www.sota2.com/research/llms.txt>)

Data updated: 2025-10-25T21:40:30.056Z

Authors: Moritz Schubotz, Philipp Scharpf, Kaushal Dudhat, Yash Nagar, Felix Hamborg, Bela Gipp

Published: 2019-06-28T08:27:53.000Z

## Abstract

We present an open source math-aware Question Answering System based on Ask Platypus. Our system returns as a single mathematical formula for a natural language question in English or Hindi. This formulae originate from the knowledge-base Wikidata. We translate these formulae to computable data by integrating the calculation engine sympy into our system. This way, users can enter numeric values for the variables occurring in the formula. Moreover, the system loads numeric values for constants occurring in the formula from Wikidata. In a user study, our system outperformed a commercial computational mathematical knowledge engine by 13%. However, the performance of our system heavily depends on the size and quality of the formula data available in Wikidata. Since only a few items in Wikidata contained formulae when we started the project, we facilitated the import process by suggesting formula edits to Wikidata editors. With the simple heuristic that the first formula is significant for the article, 80% of the suggestions were correct.

## Recorded benchmark results

A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage.

## Original sources and implementation

[Original paper](<https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.01642>)

[PDF](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/1907.01642.pdf>)