As I am no longer working for Maplesoft, I will no longer be posting blog entries on Maplesoft topics.

Have you ever plotted a function in Maple and then found that the range you plotted it on wasn't really what you wanted? You can always re-execute the command, of course, but that means working out exactly what the range is for that interesting feature you want to investigate, and if you've made changes to the plot those will be lost. However Maple has the ability to zoom in on a plot interactively, without re-executing the command. The Axis Properties dialog lets you change the range numerically, but you can also do so using the mouse. Go to the plot toolbar and click on the Scale plot axes button (it looks like a red ball with an arrow). If you have an animation you will need to click on the word "plot" above the toolbar to switch from animation to plot toolbar. Now put the mouse in the middle of the plot and drag it. Dragging it down will zoom out, increasing the range; dragging it up will zoom in. The Translate plot axes button lets you 'pan' i.e. move the centre of the axis ranges without changing the range size.

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich is one of the most important scientific sites in the world. As well as being the defined location of zero degrees longitude, it is also the home of Greenwich Mean Time. As well as various exhibitions relating to astronomy, the observatory houses displays regarding the determination of longitude (the navigation problem that the observatory was set up to solve), and which was eventually solved by watchmaker John Harrison. http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.13496

Click on one of the specific math-related sites in London.

The Centre for Mathematical Sciences houses the Cambridge University Faculty of Mathematics, the Isaac Newton Insititute (where the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem was announced), and the Gordon Moore Library (Moore was the inventor of "Moore's Law"). The centre is situated on Wilberforce Road and was opened in 2003. It won four major architectural awards.