MA22010 - COMPUTING FOR MATHEMATICIANS

Module Identifier	MA22010
Module Title	COMPUTING FOR MATHEMATICIANS
Academic Year	2001/2002
Co-ordinator	Dr T McDonough
Semester	Semester 1
Pre-Requisite	MA10020
Mutually Exclusive	MA10410
Course delivery	Lecture	11 x 1 hour lectures
	Practical	11 x 2 hour practical classes
Assessment	Assignment	5 assignments (fortnightly throughout the course)	50%
	Exam	2 Hours (practical open book examination)	50%
	Resit assessment	2 Hours (practical openbook examination) Continuous assessment passed: same format as above. Otherwise, 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. Students will be given a basic introduction to the Unix operating system and its file editing facilities.

Aims

The aim of the module is 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 editingusing edt. Use of the various printer services. Saving the data generated by an interactive computing session. Commands with input froma file and output to a file.
2. INTRODUCTION TO MAPLE: Maple as a simple interactive calculator. Manipulating expressions. Basic language entities: numbers, names, strings. Assignments, Evaluation.
3. POLYNOMIALS: Expanding, factorising, finding coeffients, remainders and quotients. 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 Maple functions. Maple 2-D 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: Vector and matrix computation. 3-D plotting.

Reading Lists

Books
** Supplementary Text
Burkhardt, W. (1994) First Steps in Maple. Springer 3540198741
Heal, K M et al. (1998) Maple V Learning Guide. Springer 038798397X
Israel, R B. (1996) Calculus the Maple Way. Addison-Wesley 0201828294