MA10410 - SYMBOLIC COMPUTATION FOR MATHEMATICIANS

Module Identifier	MA10410
Module Title	SYMBOLIC COMPUTATION FOR MATHEMATICIANS
Academic Year	2001/2002
Co-ordinator	Dr T McDonough
Semester	Semester 1
Pre-Requisite	A-level Mathematics or equivalent.
Course delivery	Lecture	11 x 1 hour lectures
	Practical	11 x 2 hour practical classes
Assessment	Assignment	5 assignments (fortnightly through the course).	50%
	Exam	2 Hours (practical open book examination)	50%
	Resit assessment	2 Hours Continuous assessment passed: same format as above; otherwise 2-hour practical examination (as above).	100%

General description

The aim of this module is to create an awareness of the use of computers in the investigation of mathematical problems. This is achieved through a detailed study of the Maple symbolic algebra system. No prior knowledge of computing is required.

Aims

To create an awareness of the use of computers in the investigation of mathematical problems.

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module, a student should be able to:

use basic Unix operating system commands;
create and edit mainframe files;
use the Maple symbolic algebra system to perform computations involving basic expression manipulation, calculus, linear algebra, equation solving and to obtain graphical output using the high quality graphics capability of Maple.

Syllabus

1. THE COLLEGE COMPUTING NETWORK: The Unix operating system. File creation and editing using edt. Use of the various printer services. Saving data generated by an interactive computing session. Commands with input from a file and output to a file.
2. INTRODUCTION TO MAPLE: Maple as a simple interactive calculator. Basic language entities: numbers, names, strings. Expressions, simplification and evaluation. Assignments.
3. POLYNOMIALS: Expanding, factorising, finding coefficients, remainders and quatients. Sequences, lists and sets. General expression manipulation, substitution.
4. BASIC CALCULUS: Differentiation. Integration, indefinite and definite. Ranges in Maple. Controlling the accuracy of approximate calculations. Taylor expansions.
5. FUNCTIONS AND GRAPHS: Simple one-line functions in Maple. 2-dimensional plotting facilities: X-Maple. Graphs of functions.
6. EQUATION SOLVING: Solutions of algebraic and transcendental equations, exact and approximate.
7. MORE ADVANCED FUNCTIONS: Boolean expressions. Selection statements. Repetition statements. The Maple procedure definition. Recursive procedures.
8. FURTHER TOPICS: Selected functions from Maple packages.

Reading Lists

Books
** Supplementary Text
W Burkhardt. (1994) First Steps in Maple.. Springer 0387198741
K M Heal et al.. (1998) Maple V Learning Guide.. Springer 038798397X
M B Monagan et al.. (1998) Maple V Programming Guide. Springer 0387983988
M H Holmes et al.. (1993) Exploring Calculus with Maple. Addison-Wesley 0201526166
R Parker. (1997) Maple for... Trigonometry / Algebra / Calculus. Delmar Publishers 0827374097
W C Bauldry, B Evans & J Johnson. (1995) Linear Algebra with Maple. J Wiley 0471063681
R B Israel. (1996) Calculus the Maple Way. Addison-Wesley 0201828294