We've been working hard on the brand new version of MaplePrimes over the last few months. I am glad to announce that the new version will be launching publicly next week. The new site fixes many of the requests we've received from MaplePrimes users over the years, and adds new features that we think will make the new site easier to use, and a better way to get and share information about Maple and MapleSim.

I am happy to let you know that we have just released Maple 14 and MapleSim 4.

Maple 14 provides access to the new MapleCloud Document Exchange, which gives you an easy way to share your work with your colleagues, your students, and the entire Maple community. Other new features include more mathematics for engineering applications; performance improvements; the Maple Toolbox for MATLAB®, which is now included with Maple 14; a new numerical differential equations solver, the Cash-Karp pair; an enhanced point probe for 2-D plots; more task templates; and the ability to execute Maple documents programmatically. To name a few. See What’s New in Maple 14 for more information, and to watch a movie about the MapleCloud.

MapleSim 4 comes with a new 3-D construction environment for multibody modeling, which lets you build, visualization, and interact with a 3-D representation of your model. It also provides flexible probe management tools, a new semi-stiff solver, new components, and an enhanced Project Manager feature which organizes subsystems, probes, and attachments. For the full list, and to see a movie showing the new 3-D construction environment, see What’s New in MapleSim 4.

Recently I have had a chance to use the parameter feature of the numeric dsolve. It's pretty nice, but appears to have some limitations - or maybe I just need a little help to further refine my use of this feature.

Here's an example to demonstrate what I'm encountering.

Let's start with a simple IVP with a parameter in the ODE and in the IC:

ode := diff(x(t),t)=x(t)*(A-x(t)):
ic := x(0)=x0:
sol := dsolve( {ode,ic}, x(t), numeric, parameters=[A,x0] ):

To specify values of the parameters, I do something like:

Some calculus texts compute volumes of solids by the method of "slices" before they discuss the methods of disks and shells. On the other hand, there are texts that start with disks and shells, then throw in a few examples of slices. In any event, these calculations are supposed to be illustrations of how definite integration is an additive process. Unfortunately, students often get lost in the details of the individual examples, and fail to see that all these calculations are just demonstrations that definite integration is a process of addition.

Our previous article described the design of fast algorithms for multiplying and dividing sparse polynomials. We have integrated these algorithms into the expand and divide commands of Maple 14. In this post I want to talk a bit about what you might see when you try Maple 14. Keep in mind that the product isn't released yet and I don't work for Maplesoft, so general disclaimers apply. Nevertheless, one of the first things you may notice is this.

Since my blog (as well as other) posts are deleted here, I am not that anxious to continue posting here. Meanwhile, I started a blog at Windows Live and my mapleadvisor site.

I was also thinking about restoring my part of the wiki that was there, but don't have time for that at the moment.

Alec

I haven't been logged into this site regularly for a while, being busy with other things.

But I've just noticed that, some time in the past few weeks, Robert Israel's eponymous handle has attained a mapleprimes points number that exceeds the total of all the handles that I've ever used here. So... congratulations, Robert!

I've...

For the past few weeks I have been unable to upload image files to MaplePrimes. Here's what happens.  I press the green up arrow and locate the file to be uploaded (typically a .GIF file). After I say OK and press the Upload button, the preview shows the last file I successfully uploaded.

Is this, by chance, a problem with my account - or my browser, or is it a MaplePrimes problem.

I don't know what additional information  you need. Please let me know and I'll do my best to comply.

Doug

Consider  S=sum((-1)^n*(n^(1/n)-a),n=1..infinity).
S=1/2*(a+2m-1), where m is the MRB constant.

Let m = MRB constant = sum((-1)^n*(n^(1/n)-1),n=1..infinity)

Do an internet search on "Challenger Puzzle" and you will find descriptions and solvers for a puzzle that involves sums of integers from one to nine. Indeed, on a 4 × 4 grid where sixteen integers would fit, four are given, along with the row, column, and diagonal sums of the numbers not shown. The object of the puzzle is to discover the missing twelve numbers.

Unlike Sudoku, the digits can repeat. And unlike Sudoku, the puzzle can have multiple solutions. In fact, "There may be more than one solution" is explicitly stated below the directions, copyrighted by King Features Syndicate, Inc., that appear in my local newspaper, the Waterloo Region Record.

Maple T.A. 6 is now available. It includes connectivity with Moodle™, a popular open source course management system. It also includes a new web services API, so you can integrate TA with other course management systems, include custom-built solutions. And of course, the Maple T.A. Connector for Blackboard Software® has also been updated to work with Maple T.A. 6. Other new features include a translatable interface for international language support, increased performance, and an enhanced question repository.

After years of dreaming, planning, scheming, and hoping, my family, as a single entity, finally made it to Asia for a holiday. In our region, school children typically enjoy a mid March “Break”. This usually means families packing up their minivans and driving to Florida or other warm places to help them forget the bleakness of the Canadian winter.  This year, however, the spring winds took my family to Asia – Japan and Korea to be specific. I was born in Korea but moved to Canada in 1971 when I was 7 years old. And those of you who have glanced at my past posts know that I’ve been a frequent business visitor to Japan many times over the years. But a family trip to these dynamic places is a completely different experience. There is something remarkable about the discovery experience you get as a pure tourist where issues of punctuality and protocol disappear and you’re left with the experience in its most raw and engaging forms.

Notice the sequential patterns Maple gives for an output to the following:

Digits := 96; floor(evalf((10^100+1)*(1/9801)))

which gives 1020304050607080910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474850

and

evalf((10^100+1)*(1/9801)-floor((10^100+1)*(1/9801)))

which gives 0.505254565860626466687072747678808284868890929496990103050709111315171921232527293133353739414345

.

As of today, Maplesoft has an office in Germany, allowing us to provide local sales and support to customers in Germany and Austria.  With the opening of this office, Scientific Computers will no longer act as Maplesoft's reseller in these territories.

Additional details are contained in the press release.