MA22010 - COMPUTING FOR MATHEMATICIANS

Module Identifier

MA22010

Module Title

COMPUTING FOR MATHEMATICIANS

Academic Year

2003/2004

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

Assessment Type	Assessment Length/Details	Proportion
Semester Exam	2 Hours (practical open book examination)	50%
Semester Assessment	Assignment: 5 assignments (fortnightly throughout the course)	50%
Supplementary Assessment	2 Hours (practical openbook examination) Continuous assessment passed: same format as above. Otherwise, practical examination (as above) 100%

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.

Brief 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.

Content

1. THE COLLEGE COMPUTING NETWORK: The Unix operating system. File creation and editingusing pico. Use of the various printer services. Saving the 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. 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

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 5