Welcome back to another document walkthrough! Today, I thought we’d take a look at a non-math example, like chemistry. The document we’ll be using is “Finding Average Atomic Mass”. Before we get too into it, I’d like to define some terms. Average atomic mass is defined as the weighted average mass of all isotopes of an element. An elemental isotope can be thought of as a “version” of the element – The same element at its core, but having different weight or other properties. This is due to having the same number of protons, but a different number of neutrons.

This document is, of course, about finding that average atomic mass. See the picture below for our problem, which states the element, the isotopes, and their separate masses and relative abundance.

The average atomic mass can then be calculated using sum notation. To calculate, take the weighted mean of the isotopes’ atomic masses, as shown in the overview section of the Average Atomic Mass document.

Once you’ve tried solving the problem yourself, take a look at the answer in group four, or one of the practice problems in group five. We have three examples on this topic (Average Atomic Mass Example 1, Average Atomic Mass Example 2, and Average Atomic Mass Example 3), so take a look at them all!

I hope you enjoyed learning just a bit of chemistry today, and let us know in the comments if there are any documents you’d specifically like to see explained, or any topics you’d like us to talk about!

Welcome back to another post on the Maple Learn Calculus collection! Previously on this series we looked at the Limit subcollection, and today we are going to look at the Derivative subcollection in the Maple Learn Document Gallery.

There are many different types of documents in this sub collection, so let’s take a look at one of them. We’ll start with the very first question people ask when learning about derivatives: What is a derivative?

This document starts us off with an example of f(x):=x². The example provides the background information for the rest of the document, and a visualization with a slider.

Then, we define both the Geometric and Algebraic definition of a derivative. This allows us to understand the concept in two different ways, a very useful thing for students as they explore other topics within calculus.  

Finally, the document suggests two more documents for future learning: Derivatives: Notation, for more information on the notation used in derivatives, and the Formal Definition of a Derivative document, for more information on how derivatives are formally defined and derived. Make sure to check them out too!

Now, that’s just the start. We’ve got practice problems, definitions and visualizations of rules, information on points without derivatives, and much more. They’re useful for both new learning and as a refresher, so take a look!

We can’t wait to see you another time for when we dive into Derivative documents. Let us know after the Calculus collection showcase blog posts if there’s another collection you’d like to see showcased!

Yes, you read that right! Steps documents are a feature in Maple Learn that we wanted to highlight this week, as they can provide great use in understanding concepts and solving problems. Within them, they can show all steps to solve a problem, including reminders of any formulas used! They can be found at the homepage for steps documents. A list of all can be found below the image, with links.

All steps documents:

• Calculus
  • Derivative Steps
  • Limit Steps
• Algebra and Equations Steps
  • Expansion Steps
  • Simplification Steps
  • Solving Equation Steps
  • Factoring Steps
• Matrix Steps
  • Determinant Steps
  • Eigenvector Steps
  • Inverse Steps
  • Gauss-Jordan Elimination Steps
  • Gaussian Elimination Steps

All of our documents follow the same format, which I’ll show you using 3 different documents: Derivatives Steps, Factoring Steps, and Matrix Determinant Steps. They will be shown from left to right in that order, so you can see the different steps and how they work.

The first thing you’ll see on any steps document is the place to enter the equation. Each equation can be entered in the appropriate box, in different styles to fit your needs and the problem asked.

Then, you click on the show steps button, which is the same for all of the documents:

This is where the magic happens. The steps will appear line by line, in great detail. The actual steps are generated by Maple, and presented in Maple Learn through scripting. Because of this, please don’t click off the group the steps appear in, or they’ll appear in the new group as well!

There are many other steps documents than the ones we have here, and will be adding more as time goes on. Please keep an eye out, and enjoy the updates! We hope this was helpful to you all, and let us know if there are any other steps you’d like to see.

Have you ever heard of a matrix kernel or nullspace? If not, or you’d like a refresher on the topic, keep reading! We’re doing a Maple Learn document walkthrough today on Fundamental Subspaces.

The document starts by defining the nullspace/kernel and nullity of a matrix. Nullity is defined as the number of vectors in the basis of the kernel for the given matrix. This makes sense, as nullspace is defined as:

This may still not make sense to you, and that’s okay! We have an example for a reason, where we try to find a basis for Null(A) and state the dimension of the subspace (nullity).

I won’t go through the solution here, as trying it yourself is always important. But one hint! If you get really stuck, you can find the Reduced Row Echelon Form (RREF) and the kernel using Maple Learn’s context panel, or check out the rest of our Matrices collection for other helpful documents on this topic.

Please let us know what you thought of this walkthrough or if there are any specific documents or topics you’d like to see in the comments below this post. I hope you enjoyed this walkthrough!

We’ve decided to start a new series of blog posts, where we take a closer look at the collections available in Maple Learn. What collection are we looking at first, you ask? Our largest, the Calculus collection! This collection has around 250 documents, and was one of the first to be added to the Maple Learn document gallery.

Because it’s so big, we can’t talk about it all in one post. Instead, we’re going to break it up into three posts: Limits (this one!), Derivatives, and Integration. Keep an eye out for those other ones!

Let’s dive into it. If you’re learning limits for the first time, the first document you’ll want to take a look at is our document on the formal definition of limits.

And of course, just as the document title says, we start with the formal definition of a limit:

From there, like many of our other documents, there’s a visualization to the left, and an explanation to the right. Seems fairly simple, right?

Well, what if you wanted to dig further into the topic?

That’s what the rest of this collection is for! We have documents on many topics relating to limits, such as The Squeeze Theorem, or The Fundamental Trig Limit (don’t forget to use the slider!). We also have a steps document, to help you solve any limits problems you’ve created or found.

We can’t wait to see you another time for when we dive into Derivative documents. Let us know if after the Calculus collection showcase, if you have another collection you’d like to see summarized!