Advanced Search

Question: Newbie question re Maple functionality

Question:Newbie question re Maple functionality

Dan McGeoch 4
January 31 2006
0
I feel a bit stupid asking this to be honest.. Here goes anyway.. I'm an 'early learner' regards math (certainly not early of years though :) and have recently taken a very keen interest in the physical sciences and wish to improve my math skills in order to allow me to explore ideas in this area. I have been looking for a PC based math package 'of some description?'that will allow me to interactively try out ideas and will give good visual feedback, graphing etc; I'd also like this 'study tool' to be comprehensive enough that it will not hinder me (probably through my clumsiness in honesty) and that has a very intuitive interface (ie, not overly strict with syntax and rules). I'd like something that will allow me to step through a problem and manually manipulate both sides of the equation (if that makes sense). I've thus far looked at (downloaded demo's of) Mathematica 5.2, Derive 6.1 and LiveMath. My verdict is that I like the idea of Livemath for it's hands on interactive nature (drag and drop manipulation etc) but it feels clunky for the money; Derive on the other hand feels and looks cleaner but doesnt allow for the Live interaction in the same way. I've only very briefly looked at Mathematica thus far and dont feel I can make a comment as yet. How would Maple compare with regards ease of use and interactivity? Could I for instance move a variable from left to rightside of an equation in the process of manually solving? The packages are all very similarly priced (actually Livemath is probably more expensive). As I say, I am a very long way from being a math genius (around 'O' level standard at present) but wish to learn and would like the right tool to assist the learning process. Any comments and advice welcome, Thanks, Dan
Please Wait...