Maple is a powerful program you can use to do symbolic math calculations.
Maple calculates on a much higher level than any pocket calculator can, since
it reasons with symbolic information, and not simply numbers. This means that
Maple can find exact solutions for many problems in calculus such as differentiating
or integrating a given function. Even if your calculator can do integration,
the answer is most likely a floating point approximation, whereas Maple can
often find an exact closed-form
solution, much as you would do with pencil and paper.
Maple is launched by typing maple, or xmaple.
Of these, the second has a better graphic interface, whereas maple
must be launched in a terminal window, and uses only the standard tty display.
You may also have
an entry for Maple on your root menu.
Also, check out the excellent
documentation for Maple, Matlab, etc.
at the University of Indiana, by Dave Hart.
Further topics planned for this page are:
- Plotting functions and solving inequalities
- Defining and using simple functions
- Writing longer functions
- Operators on functions
- Programming in Maple
Keith Orpen,
who is still writing this, would like to
hear your comments and suggestions.
