Hints for Math 126 Maple Assignment 1

Be sure to look at the worksheets intro.mws and elementary_calculus.mws.

In intro.mws you will find the following topics which you will need for this assignment:

--How to use Maple to do arithmetic and algebra

--How to do approximate arithmetic (with the desired accuracy)

--How to assign values to variables

--How to define functions

--What some of the standard built in functions and constants are (such as )

--How to plot functions

You will also find something about error messages, examples of a couple of common problems, and a description of how to use Maple's online help.

In elementary_calculus.mws you will find out Maple's name for and how to use Maple for the following elementary calculus operations:

--limits

--derivatives

--integrals

You will also find two warnings. These are designed to alert you to some problems you might run into. One explains why you might sometimes get 0 as the answer for a derivative when the function you are differentiating isn't constant. The other explains what to do if, for example, you have used f as the name of one function and now that you are done with that function, you want to use it for the name of another one.

You will need to know that sqrt is Maple's command for a square root. Here are a couple of examples.

> sqrt(256);

> sqrt(1+x^2);

Remember, Maple's notation for the exponential function is exp .

> exp(x);

Warning: Make sure you use Pi for the number . If you accidentally type pi , you will see on the screen, but this time Maple doesn't recognize it as a number. Here you can see the difference.

> evalf(Pi);

> evalf(pi);

>