Stephen,

It would easier to help if you would simply post the .qu script.

Probably you need to finnesse with sets.

For a toy example, suppose the answer to a MapleTA problem is

$ans=maple("{solve(x^2-1=0,x)}");

 

Notice I wrapped -1,1 into a set {-1,1}.

Imagine you think the student  will only stumble upon one of the two solutions. Then your grading algorithm should be something like

evalb($RESPONSE in $ans);

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toby,

We have used MapleTA at University Wisconsin-Eau Claire since 2004.

We use it widely in pre-Calculus and in our Calculus sequence.

I agree that the mapleapps questions banks are meager. We write our own questions. Over the years we have developed and refined a very good set of question banks for differential calculus, integral calculus and multivariable calculus. Most of our questions are Maple-graded.

 

Something is wrong with the way you are posing the question. My first impression was that the graphs started at "a" and went to some variable point "c" in [a,b]. But this cannot be right, because c=a minimizes the areas in a trivial way.

So..the question is not yet properly posed. And by the way, are you talking about the area between the curves, or the area under each of the two curves?

Use "numpoints" when the plot parameters are one-dimensional. So numpoints refines the partition of an interval. Use it with plot and spacecurve.

Use "grid" when the plot parameters are two or three dimensional. So grid refines the partitioning of a rectangle or box into smaller rectangles or boxes. Use grid with implicitplot, plot3d, implicitplot3d, etc. Essentially "numpoints" is ignored by these commands, just as "grid" is ignored by plot and spacecurve.

Doug is probably right, something is not numeric.

But another observation is your use of an arrow.

If I set up a function in MapleTA by the construction

$f=maple("x->x^2");

then MapleTA throws errors. I find I need to use

$f=maple("proc(x) x^2 end");

or

$f=maple("unapply(x^2,x)");

 

 

You are saying that the LaTeX example provided by the MapleTA documentation ought to work.

I agree: it does not work, especially in MapleTA3.**

The idea of integrating LaTeX into Maple and MapleTA is grand and worthy, but the implementation is pathetic.

I would love to use LaTeX to author MapleTA questions, but right now it is not practical. The confluence of LaTeX, html and Maple introduces ambiguities that the developers have not confronted. (Woe to the person who uses <!)

I tried hard to author MapleTA questions with LaTeX...hours turned into days which turned into frustration. There is no good documentation.

If somebody reports success, I would welcome their guidance.

 

It seems that the second and third lines of your algorithm code should be

 

$a2=maple("Matrix([[1,2],[3,4]])");
$c=maple("LinearAlgebra[MatrixInverse]($a2)");

 

 

 

Here are two possibilities: f:=proc(x) if x>0 then x else -x; fi; end proc; or f:=x->piecewise(x>0,x,-x);

I know what Grant is talking about. Intermittently, the gif for a maple("printf(MathML:-ExportPresentation(stuff))") just ends up being a broken tag. It has nothing to do with syntax. Nor does it seem to have anything to do with the server type. My guess is that it has to do with memory. When I test questions, the problem never arises. But when lots of students start generating assignments, emails start rolling in with reports of this problem. I allow students to make an unlimited number of attempts at an assignment before its due date. I used to limit the number of attempts, but this problem prompted me to remove the limit. My policy is that a student should first look through all of the questions before starting to work them. If any of them are "duds" because of the problem that Grant mentions, then they should submit the assignment for grading with blank answers and then generate a new version. I do find, however, that sometimes students are not able to figure out that the question is a "dud." They see an error message for the missing tag embedded in the question, and think it is mathematics and ask me what to do. Oh well. Life goes on.

In Winedt, look for "run" under "Accessories." The keyboard way is "Shift+Ctrl+R". Then enter "ebb example.gif" where "example.gif" is the name of the graphics file. \usepackage{graphicx} and \includegraphics{} should work, assuming that ebb correctly creates the bounding box file example.bb This link seems to have useful information for you: http://www.math.vanderbilt.edu/~schectex/wincd/tips_pix.htm I suspect you are using pdflatex and this is why color is not working right for eps files. But if you can use latex instead, you can use eps graphics and everything seems to be more straightforward. Good luck.

If you really want to use pdflatex, then use Maple to export the image as a gif. Then you need to produce a file for the bounding box. If you are using MikTeX, then in the bin directory there is a file named ebb.exe I run this from Winedt with a command like "ebb example.gif". This created the required bounding box. Of course if it is an option, then just use latex instead of pdflatex. Then you can use eps graphics and use dvipdf or dvips followed by pspdf.

Are you looking for the Jacobian of the transformation (r,a) goes to (x,y)? If so, you could set it up like this, where X[1]=x and X[2]=y: X[1]:=(r,a)->r*exp(a); X[2]:=(r,a)->r*exp(-a); Matrix(2,2,(i,j)->D[i](X[j])(r,a));

It is not clear from your post what problem you perceive. For the double integral, try this: int(int(sqrt(1-x^2-y^2),x),y);

The proper way to deal with the series is indeed to treat it as a telescoping series. But a fun and "daring" way is to exponentiate the Nth partial sum, and use the identity exp(A+B)=exp(A)*exp(B). The exponential of the Nth partial sum is obviously N+1.

After all these years I find out about trigsubs! A secret gem. I think this illustrates one real weakness of the Maple help screens. Everybody knows about subs. But the help screen for subs does not point to trigsubs. Ironically the help screen for trigsubs points to subs. The help screen for subs points to algsubs, but algsubs does not connect to trigsubs. And if you do a text search or a topic search on "trig" you do not find trigsubs. So poor trigsubs is sitting out there in its own lonely and isolated Maple help screen. It barely shows up in Google!