Basic Introduction of Maple

     

Introduction

       Assalamualaikum, today I'm going to introduce to you about the Maple software - specifically from Physics perspective. Maple is a computer algebra software developed by Maplesoft. It allows users to solve many simple and complex mathematical problems besides improving efficiency of the user in solving calculations.

Figure 1.1 : Maple 16

Applications of Maple

       Maple Software can facilitate you in many ways. First, it helps you to analyze and explore the data. You can make a data analysis from raw data which  may yields into useful information. For example, if you have done an experiment to study the motion of an object, the equations constructed based on the experiment can be analyzed by differentiation and integration to find velocity, acceleration, and time.

Figure 1.2 : A motion experiment

To Do	Commands	Comments
Arimethic	+	Add
	-	Substract
	*	Multiply
	/	Divide
	sqrt(a)	Take square root of a
	^	Raise to a power
	abs(a)	Take absolute value of a
Clear Maple's memory	restart;	This does not delete the worksheet. Only Maple's memory is cleared

Table 1 : Example of Maple Commands

       Besides that, you can use Maple to visualize the data you obtained from the experiment conducted or from the functions constructed. This visualizations allows you to extract information in a clearer overview and make conclusion based on the graphical representations. For instance, you can convert a function of a projectile (parabola) into a graph to visualize and extract instantaneous velocity, particular value along the graph, and visualize the effects when you alter the projectile function.

Figure 1.3 : Example of  Graph of a Projectile Motion

Basic Tutorial

You can click this link to view this example of basic Maple tutorial by Bao Nguyen.

I will show you how to use basic commands in Maple.

1. Open Maple program. Now you are in Document Mode.
2. Click on File > New > Worksheet mode. This mode allows you to do mathematical calculation with some built-in functions such as surd, simplify, eval, evalf and convert.
3. Now we will do some basic calculations. Inputting numbers with operations will give you results - just like a normal calculator. For instance, entering 5 + 5 will give you 10, 5 - 5 will give you 0 and so on. It will return answers with exact values (expressed as fractions).
4. To convert it into significant figures, right click and hover your cursor to Approximate > 5. It will convert the answer into 5 significant figures.
5. Maple is CASE SENSITIVE! So be cautious on the case you are using to avoid error.
6. You can also input symbols into the Maple program. On the left panel, you can simply expand the Common Symbols sub-panel and choose the symbol you would like to enter. Alternatively, you can type pre-defined names of the symbol such as "Pi".
7. To save the worksheet, simply hit Ctrl + S or go to File > Save and finally you can close the program safely.

That is all for today. I hope this entry gives you an idea about the Maple program. Till then, see you soon!