Student Linear Algebra Now Available from MaplePrimes™

Maple is opening the doors for professors and students alike with the release of interactive student packages. These packages encourage a deeper understanding of the concepts presented by allowing you to walk through mathematical problems and visualise concepts using one-step routines. The first of these packages was Student [Calculus1], which lets you single-step through differentiation, integration, and limit problems. Now available from MaplePrimes is the new Student[Linear Algebra] package.

This revolutionary package provides tutors and visualization routines to help present and understand problems in an introductory course in Linear Algebra. Interactive tutors enhance your understanding of linear system problems by applying Gaussian elimination or Gauss-Jordan reduction methods in a step-by-step manner tutorial. Using the GaussianEliminationTutor or GaussJordanEliminationTutor, once a matrix is in its reduced form, you can query for the rank, nullity, and bases for the row, column, and null spaces. The InverseTutor allows you to step through the process of computing the inverse of a matrix by adding, multiplying and swappingrows. To assist you in walking though a problem, you can ask for a hint, undo an operation, or jump to the final solution. A history of applied methods is continuously displayed to recall your work.

Eigenvalue and eigenvector tutors are also available. Each tutor is presented as a maplet allowing users, who may not be familiar with Maple syntax, to easily access the interactive routines in this package.

The visualization routines included in this package heightens comprehension of the concepts presented in an introductory Linear Algebra course. With these routines, you can easily display the cross product of two vectors, plot a system of 2-D or 3-D linearequations, display a least squares fit to a plot of points in 2-D or 3-D, return the projection of a vector onto a subspace, and more. These one-step routines require only the student to enter the appropriate matrix, vector, algebraic expression or system to display the result. Several options are available to customise each graph.

The computation routines offered in this package are interfaces to the corresponding routines in the LinearAlgebra package, but with two fundamental differences. The Student[LinearAlgebra] package uses software-point computations as opposed to the default hardware floating-point computations performed in the LinearAlgebra package. Secondly, symbols are treated as real values rather than complex values. This flexible package allows you to change the settings mentioned and others to the defaults of the LinearAlgebra package. The Student LinearAlgebra package is now available from MaplePrimes at http://mapleprimes.adeptscience.co.uk.

Article: Student Linear Algebra Now Available from MaplePrimes™