Ds's comment on best decision we ever made for his engineering courses

[8filltheheart]

Ds called this morning very happy and talkative. (not a usual combination for ds on the phone. Our normal conversations seem to extend to not much beyond 1 syllable words or 60 sec real conversations!! ;))

 

He is thrilled with how his sr yr is going. He has been making 97s-100s on his homework. For a chemical engineering sr, that is pretty much unheard of!! He said that yesterday he got back one of his homework assignments and the prof said, "Geek!" :lol: (Ds is a far from a geek as they come, so this was said in complete jest. :D)

 

Anyway, he says that computer program that he learned way back in his high school sr yr during dual enrollment at the local uni that we in turn purchased for when he left for his current uni is the best tool for his engineering courses,"EVER". (his direct quote)

 

He has several other sr level engineers now learning how to use it b/c they have witnessed how powerful of a tool it is for solving the problems vs. the programs they have been using.

 

The program is Maple.

 

Just wanted to share in case anyone has engineering students that might be interested in learning how to use it. (FWIW, they offer webinars all the time, as well as 5 future downloads in case of computer crashes or new computer purchases. (at least they did when we purchased his back in 2005)

Edited October 14, 2010 by 8FillTheHeart

[Michelle in AL]

Do you remember what course it was that he used it in during dual enrollment?

 

I looked on Maple's web site and they have study guides to use it with Precal and Calculus. There are also study guides for engineers, but I'm not sure a student could do an engineering course like that at home without a teacher.

 

Anyway, if you remember the name of the class, I can search and see if they have anything like that available in our area. Dd wants to go into aero engineering.

[8filltheheart]

He took it as a lab with his first cal course. He has used it continuously since. No one else on his campus uses Maple. They use a program called Math???something (I don't remember what he said.) Up to now, most of the other students had been able to get the other program to work for their problems. Whatever classes he is taking this yr, though, that programs functionality is extremely subpar to what Maple can do.

 

He is teaching at least 4 other students how to use Maple.

[April in CA]

Thanks for posting this - I just sent my freshman engineering student an email regarding your post.

Blessings,

April

[Jane in NC]

Many engineering colleges require the use of Maple in their Calculus courses.

[8filltheheart]

Many engineering colleges require the use of Maple in their Calculus courses.

 

I know. Not sure why his university doesn't use it. :confused: I am just glad that he learned it.

[Kathy in Richmond]

Many engineering colleges require the use of Maple in their Calculus courses.

 

Yes! Dd even used Maple in her EPGY math class at home last year. It was built into the course software for their number theory course (abstract and as far from engineering as math gets :)).

 

The other two commonly-used symbolic/numerical software packages are Matlab and Mathematica. DD has found all three useful at different time: Matlab in a math research project and Mathematica (what she has on her laptop) for all sorts of investigations & calculations, & for visualizing the graphs of complicated functions. The ability to plot, rotate, and zoom in on a 3D graph was invaluable when she was studying multivariable calculus.

 

Here's a quick overview of the different programs, and a list of the sorts of tasks they're capable of performing.

 

~Kathy

[Joan in GE]

Thank you so much for bringing this up "8" and sharing the links Kathy and others for discussion.

 

My ds2 has just been using the Matlab for several years now. So it will be quite interesting for him to explore these other possibilities.

 

Kathy - so does your daughter (and/or son) know all of them? Is it useful to know them all since it seems they have different uses?

 

Joan

[8filltheheart]

Yes! Dd even used Maple in her EPGY math class at home last year. It was built into the course software for their number theory course (abstract and as far from engineering as math gets :)).

 

The other two commonly-used symbolic/numerical software packages are Matlab and Mathematica. DD has found all three useful at different time: Matlab in a math research project and Mathematica (what she has on her laptop) for all sorts of investigations & calculations, & for visualizing the graphs of complicated functions. The ability to plot, rotate, and zoom in on a 3D graph was invaluable when she was studying multivariable calculus.

 

Here's a quick overview of the different programs, and a list of the sorts of tasks they're capable of performing.

 

~Kathy

 

Matlab is the one he said that the other students were using. (I was thinking Mathlab last night but I knew that didn't sound quite right!)

 

I have no idea why he said Maple is better, just that it is. Do you know why he would think that?

[Kathy in Richmond]

I've never used Matlab myself (I use Mathematica), so someone else might be able to answer better. Looking at the descriptions online, though, I found that a drawback to Matlab is that it doesn't perform symbolic math like Maple and Mathematica. So while both Maple & Matlab could solve a large system of equations, solve and graph a differential equation, or plot a function in 3D, Maple can also do stuff like factor a high-order polynomial or add algebraic fractions. Maybe that's it?

 

~Kathy

[RegGuheert]

I learned about Wolfram|Alpha in this post last year and mentioned it to DS20. Turns out he and is engineering friends use that site frequently for difficult problems. Please note that it is free!

[Kathy in Richmond]

I learned about Wolfram|Alpha in this post last year and mentioned it to DS20. Turns out he and is engineering friends use that site frequently for difficult problems. Please note that it is free!

 

Yep, that's very cool! Wolfram is the producer of Mathematica, too.

 

~Kathy

[jld]

Thanks so much, everyone!