Maple: A Primer (Iop Concise Physics)

## Preface Maple ® is a very powerful symbolic mathematics program. We can, for example, input into a Maple document an expression like y: = x 2 + 3x -18 and command Maple to plot this, solve it (i.e. find its roots), find its differential or its integral (antidifferential), etc. Because of its power, Maple has a fairly steep learning curve. The purpose of this small book is to help you climb a little way up that curve. A computer application cannot be mastered by just reading text; it is necessary to 'get one's hands dirty.' The reader is encouraged to download the associated files and experiment with them. You will need to be patient and to carefully look at your work if the outcome is unexpected. For example, the user must remember that a variable (or, to use Mapletalk, a name) is assigned a value or expression using the := operator. It is so easy to forget this and use just =. Maple will not complain but later statements will fail to give the expected results. On a few occasions, the author has had the odd experience of entering a statement that appears to obey the Maple syntax but fails to generate an output; the solution was merely to re-type the statement. It is recommended that all Maple documents begin with the restart command and that the user recalculates the document after editing by clicking the !!! icon (more on this in chapter 1) The Maple on-line help website at https://www.maplesoft.com/support/help/ allows you to search for help. In addition, the site https://www.mapleprimes.com/ connects you to the Maple users' community; here you can see other users' solutions or post a question seeking assistance. If you wish to do an Internet search, say to get information on the Maple command plot, use a search term like maple software plot where the inclusion of software decreases the chances of hits about the maple tree or maple syrup. Within the text, a notation such as [Algebra.mw] indicates that a sample file is available for the topic under discussion. Files referenced in the book may be downloaded from either of these sites: (a) The publisher's site: https://iopscience.iop.org/book/978-1-64327-488-1 (b) The author's website: https://people.stfx.ca/bliengme/IOP/MapleFiles.zip. To avoid the confusion caused by the use of quotes in computer books, generous use of italics is made. For example, to reference the command used to solve equations, the text might read: 'The solve command is shown here'. To indicate what one might type in a worksheet, a sans serif font is used, as in: 'Enter the statement a := b'. Wishing you every success in learning Maple. Maple is a comprehensive symbolic mathematics application which is well suited for demonstrating physical science topics and solving associated problems. Because Maple is such a rich application, it has a somewhat steep learning curve. Most existing texts concentrate on mathematics; the Maple help facility is too detailed and lacks physical science examples, many Maple-related websites are out of date giving readers information on older Maple versions. This book records the author's journey of discovery; he was familiar with SMath but not with Maple and set out to learn the more advanced application. It leads readers through the basic Maple features with physical science worked examples, giving them a firm base on which to build if more complex features interest them. "Maple is a comprehensive symbolic mathematics application which is well suited for demonstrating physical science topics and solving associated problems. This book records the author's journey of discovery; he was familiar with SMath but not with Maple and set out to learn the more advanced application. It leads readers through the basic Maple features with physical science worked examples, giving them a firm base on which to build if more complex features interest them." -- Prové de l'editor