Product Tips & Techniques

Tips and Tricks on how to get the most about Maple and MapleSim

We’ve just launched Maple Flow 2026. And yes, the title of this post doesn’t follow the standard formula for a “new version, new features” announcement.

But this is not only a post about a new version number and new features.

It is about a problem engineers know too well: important calculations trapped inside spreadsheets, scripts and old project files - visible only as cell references, code fragments and hidden logic.

That might be fine when the calculation is being built. It is not fine when the calculation must be reviewed, reused, defended, audited or handed to another engineer.

Maple Flow is built around a simple idea: engineering calculations should be readable, structured, auditable and easy to share.

The new release gives engineers better ways to create those calculations, bring existing work into Maple Flow, and turn legacy material into documentation that actually explains the engineering.

You can now generate Maple Flow worksheets using tools like Codex or Claude Code. This makes it easier to transform ideas into structured technical analyses and turn existing calculations into clear, auditable engineering documents.

Here are a few ways to use this new integration,

Rescue calculations from spreadsheets

Many engineering teams have years - sometimes decades - of calculations sitting in Excel. Those spreadsheets often contain real engineering value, but the logic is fragmented across cells, sheets and references.

Manually translating all that work into a clearer format can feel like too much effort to even start.

With Maple Flow 2026 and an AI coding assistant such as Codex or Claude Code, you can use a simple instruction like:

Convert this Excel spreadsheet to a Maple Flow worksheet

The AI coding assistant then helps transform spreadsheet logic into a structured Maple Flow worksheet with natural 2D math, clearer variable names and calculations that are visible on the page.

This is not just file conversion. It is a way to expose the engineering intent hidden inside legacy spreadsheets and make that work easier to understand, extend and review.

Generate engineering worksheets from a prompt

The same AI-assisted workflow can also help create a new Maple Flow worksheet from a natural language prompt.

Ask for a design calculation, describe the engineering context, specify the assumptions and ask for supporting text, equations, plots or diagrams. The result can be a worksheet that already contains readable math, explanations and visual context.

Stop hiding math in scripts

Maple Flow 2026 also opens up a practical path for moving useful work out of scripts and into worksheets that communicate the engineering more clearly.

For example, a Matlab script built around low-level loops, switch/case logic and numerical iteration can be translated into a Maple Flow worksheet that uses higher-level mathematical constructs.

In one example, a crude while-loop numerical solver became an fsolve call, and switch/case logic became a much more readable piecewise expression.

The point is not simply to change syntax. It is to move from code that performs a calculation to a worksheet that explains the calculation.

I've outlined a few ideas that demonstrate how you can use AI coding assistants to generate Maple Flow worksheets. There's much more you can do.

Of course, this functionality is subject to the same disclaimers as any other AI-generated content:

  • Worksheets are generated by and subject to the limitations of your AI model
  • your mileage may vary
  • and you absolutely need a (human) expert in the loop to check the output.

But as a starting point, this workflow is seriously powerful.

Set up your AI coding assistant to generate Maple Flow worksheets with the instructions here.

Maple Flow 2026 introduces in-worksheet programming, so you can write programs and scripts directly on the canvas and execute them inline with the rest of your worksheet.

You can enter programs with the keyboard or use the new Programming palette, which inserts common templates such as loops and if/else blocks with the right structure and indentation.

Productivity features help keep the program readable:

  • automatic closing of procedures, loops and conditionals after the opening line is entered
  • intelligent insertion of statement separators when appropriate
  • automatic indentation to preserve structure and readability

The existing Code Editor remains the right place for larger scripts. In-worksheet programming is for the logic you want to sit directly beside the math, text and results.

The Mathcad Migration Assistant has also been updated. It now translates much of the content of Mathcad Prime files into Maple Flow format, in addition to the existing support for Mathcad 13, 14 and 15.


Because Maple Flow 2026 now supports in-worksheet programming, the updated Migration Assistant also translates Mathcad programs.

For Mathcad thinking about moving to Maple Flow, the update makes migration faster and more practical. Existing work moves over with more of the structure and intent preserved.

Worksheets now compute faster! The results depend on the specific calculations, but the improvements can be very noticable - these are selected results from our internal benchmarking suite

For engineers working with larger or more complex worksheets, that kind of improvement changes the feel of the product.

Maple Flow 2026 adds more ready-to-use examples to the Application Gallery, including a new Semiconductor section.


The gallery now includes worksheets semiconductor oxide growth, heat sink sizing, cylindrical fin heat transfer, NMOS threshold voltage, MOSFET power loss, photolithography scanner limits and boron implantation stability.

Maple Flow 2026 also improves everyday interoperability with Excel. You can now paste more types of data from Excel into Maple Flow, including data formatted as percentages.

It is a small feature with a practical benefit: less cleanup, fewer interruptions and a smoother path from spreadsheet data to engineering calculation.

The most important thing about Maple Flow 2026 is not any single feature - it is the direction of travel. Engineering work is becoming more connected. Calculations are moving between spreadsheets, scripts, AI coding assistants, design tools and formal documentation.

Maple Flow gives those calculations a place where the math is visible, the structure is clear and the result is ready to share.

So yes, Maple Flow 2026 includes new features. But the bigger story is this: engineers can now move more of their existing work out of hidden logic and into auditable worksheets that communicate the engineering.

Explore the new features, try the examples and experiment with generating worksheets using AI coding assistants. Grab a trial here.

Little bit of a followup on the "Series Solutions of ODEs in Maple" online seminar.

According to Mathematical Methods for Physicists, 7th Edition by Arfken, Weber and Harris,

Pages 343-345,

Singular points are classified as regular or irregular

Irregular points are called essential singularies.

They show how to apply these to famous differential equations in Quantum Mechanics and other physical applications (examples given in Farlow's Partial Differential Equations for Scientists and Engineers).

In Section 12.1 of Mathematical Methods for Physicists, the complex series Laurent expansion (chapter 11 of the book) is applied to generalized to the complex plane (see Saff and Snider Fundamentals of Complex Analysis for Mathematics, Science and Engineering, 2nd Edition).  Not too sure how Maple handles contour integrals though.

It seems that a regular point is the same as a ordinary point, as per Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, 8th Edition by Boyce and DiPrima, Chapter 5.

A little while ago, I created a video, Engaging and Enlightening Students with Maple Visualizations, that showed a sample of Maple visualizations that would be helpful in teaching math. Doing that allowed me to get reacquainted with some of Maple's plotting features that I hadn't used for a while. As a result, I made a second instructional video for my Maple tips series, Animating a Polyhedron in Maple

I chose this topic because I thought it would show several features in Maple that might not be known to all users. I list them below and encourage you to try them out.

  • The plots:-polyhedraplot command allows you to create a 3-D plot of a polyhedron, including one of 138 polyhedra that Maple knows about.

  • The list of named polyhedra available can be obtained by calling the plots:-polyhedra_supported command.

  • The viewpoint option, which allows you to create an animation by varying the viewpoint through a 3D plot, can be used to rotate the polyhedron.

  • Finally, the Export feature allows you to save the plot animation as an animated GIF.

 

A note on what I've been working on for the past while. Some of you may have seen the announcement on LinkedIn yesterday; this is for the home audience.

The question I've been chasing is the one that's underneath the Physics package, the dsolve / pdsolve formal methods and heuristics, the advanced Mathematical Functions and FunctionAdvisor, and most of what I've written for Maple over the years. How can mathematicians and physicists speed up significantly their work using Computer Algebra Systems (CAS) and at the same time trust the result a computer hands back? The new chapter is what happens when AI sits between the human and the CAS, and the answer to that, in my view, turns out to be a much harder problem than the AI hype suggests.

Why? Because AI is increasingly the driver of computational mathematics in research, engineering, and education. And the unsolved problem isn't whether AI can do mathematics. It can. The problem is that an incorrect AI result arrives with the same confidence as a correct one.

On 100 challenging problems of undergraduate mathematics we tested, six independent state-of-the-art AIs returned mathematically equivalent answers on only 21% of them, and even within a single AI, repeated runs disagreed with themselves on 3% to 57% of the problems (details). The gap this validation crosses, between probabilistic inference and certified mathematical computation, is epistemological, not technological. It won't close with more training data. It needs validation across multiple AIs and multiple CAS, with no single engine having the final word.

ExaktAI aims to address that gap. It guides AI through mathematical computation, validates each step against Maple and Mathematica, and automatically generates and opens a corresponding CAS document where the validation can be audited and reproduced for every step, and where one can continue working on the problem. The goal: AI-mathematics that is validated, with the human in the loop.

ExaktAI is now well developed (TRL 6: System prototype demonstration in a simulated environment, on the ISED / Innovative Solutions Canada TRL scale). At the end an image. A Beta is scheduled for late summer / fall 2026; details at exaktai.ai.

In summary: ExaktAI is my present, and if you work on AI for mathematics and computer algebra, or the validation problem for AI, I'd love to hear your perspective.



Edgardo S. Cheb-Terrab
ExaktAI
Research Fellow Emeritus at Maplesoft.

The new ribbon style user interface of recent Maple versions is well structured and visually much more appealing than the former user interface. Great for new users. However, I do not use the new Maple version for productive work because it is considerably slower to use: Much more clicks and mouse movements are involved than before, which breaks the flow.

To improve this situation, I thought about customizing the quick access toolbar with menu items that I need all the time. With Maple 2026 this suggestion has become a less viable solution because the quick access toolbar shrunk in size and moved to a screen location with low mouse activity (to get there fast, the mouse has to move back and forth like Speedy Gonzales). The tiny buttons in the toolbar are hard to distinguish and to hit in one go (a golfer might say “it's rare like an eagle”). If you disagree, try to write text and switch to non-executable math (to enter a symbol) and switch back to text and continue writing. Do the same with the former user interface (e.g. Maple 2024) and compare.

As a new suggestion I thought about adding a new tab "My Tab" to the ribbon that is customizable by the user. Here is what I would pick from the current ribbon items

(A subset from 4 out of 10 tabs: The Home, Insert, Edit and Help tab. The latter is less important)

I would probably also add these two items

although they do not fully replace the former buttons from the contextual tool bar

.

I use the above buttons from the former user interface allot in text passages to toggle between text and non-executable math. They are also useful to change the input mode of an empty document block (instead of inserting a new line with the desired input mode and deleting unwanted input lines). These buttons were introduced with Maple 2021 to improve usability, now they are gone and with it the ease of integrating math into text. With Maple 2026, I have to go back to using F5, which now “toggles” between three states (with the drawback that now in 1-D Math no indication of the state of the input mode is available on the user interface).

The above selection of menu items is my selection to work efficiently on textbook style Maple documents composed of explanatory text passages (including non-executable math) and Maple input and output. Other users would probably customize differently according to their needs.

A final remark about the undo function. Most software has undo on a top level. I do not understand why undo is not in the current quick access toolbar.

I strongly hope for productivity improvements that I can stop using Maple 2025.2 for Screen Readers (having the former user interface). Please do something to reduce mouse movements and clicks of frequently used interface functions. There is too much tab switching between the 3 most important tabs (Home, Insert, Edit) and too little functionality and ease of use of the quick access toolbar.

I would be interested to know which menu items other users would select.

Over the past few months, I've created a number of short videos. My intention is to help people use Maple more effectively. I occasionally give workshops introducing Maple and its programming language, and many of the topics come from questions I get from the participants. 

These can be found on our Youtube channel. Here are the ones posted so far.

What is a Workbook?
Creating a Workbook
How to Customize Your Maple Settings with the Options Dialog
What is Maple Transactions?
How to Submit an Article to Maple Transactions
Quotation Marks in Maple
Using Single Quotes to Prevent Evaluation
 

If you find these helpful and have suggestions for future videos, please leave a comment, thanks!

Maple 2026.1 

We have just released an update to Maple. Maple 2026.1 includes further enhancements to the new AI Assistant and Plotting Themes, as well as Explore, accessibility, and the math engine. As always, we recommend that all Maple 2026 users install this update. 

In particular, please note that this update includes a fix to the problem where titles do not show up when using the Explore commands title option.  As always, thanks for helping us, and your fellow Maple users, by letting us know! 

This update is available through Tools>Check for Updates in Maple, and is also available from the Maple 2026.1 download page on web site, where you can also find more details.  

For decades, Maple has been built around one of the world’s most powerful mathematics engines—helping students, educators, engineers, and researchers explore ideas, solve complex problems, and communicate mathematics clearly.

Maple 2026 builds on that foundation with major advances in the math engine, expanding the kinds of problems Maple can solve while improving reliability and performance.

At the same time, Maple 2026 introduces new AI-powered tools that help you work faster—finding commands, generating visualizations, explaining concepts, and helping you explore ideas. The key difference is that these tools sit on top of Maple’s math engine, so the results are grounded in real computation rather than guesswork.

If you’ve been following along with our recent Mathy teaser videos and sneak peek posts, you may already have seen hints of some of these features. Now I’m excited to finally share them in full.

One of the most exciting additions in Maple 2026 is the new AI Assistant.

AI tools are incredibly useful for exploring ideas, writing code, and learning new topics. But when the mathematics becomes more involved, relying on AI alone can be risky. The Maple AI Assistant brings those productivity benefits into Maple while keeping the mathematics grounded in Maple’s trusted computation engine.

You can ask the AI Assistant questions in natural language and have it help you:

  • find Maple commands or formulas
  • generate Maple code
  • create visualizations
  • explain mathematical concepts
  • draft examples, worksheets, or reports

Because Maple performs the underlying computations where appropriate, the results are grounded in Maple’s powerful math engine. The AI Assistant becomes a productivity partner that helps you accomplish tasks in Maple faster and more easily, combining the flexibility of AI with mathematics you can trust.

Watch the AI Assistant in action.

 
Turn Documents into Live Mathematics

Another feature I’m particularly excited about is Document Import.

Many of us have years of mathematical content stored in PDFs, lecture notes, journal articles, slides, or even handwritten pages. Traditionally these documents are static—you can read them, but you can’t interact with the mathematics inside them.

With Maple 2026, that changes.

Document Import allows Maple to convert many document formats—including PDFs, DOCX files, and presentations—into Maple worksheets where the mathematics becomes live and executable. 

The image below illustrates the transformation.

On the left (“Before”), scribbled handwritten notes from a Calculus III lecture were saved in a Word document. The notes include hand-drawn sketches, formulas, and written explanations.

After importing the document into Maple (“After”), the mathematical expressions were recognized and converted into live, editable Maple mathematics. The text was preserved, and the hand-drawn sketches were retained as images. The resulting worksheet supports evaluation, editing, and further computation.

Once imported, you can:

  • evaluate expressions
  • modify formulas
  • extend derivations
  • add visualizations
  • explore variations of the mathematics

Instead of recreating examples from scratch, you can bring existing material directly into Maple and start exploring.

While the new AI features are exciting, the heart of Maple has always been its mathematics engine—and Maple 2026 delivers significant advances here.

One particularly notable improvement is Maple’s expanded ability to solve linear recurrence equations. Through improvements to the rsolve command and major extensions to the LREtools package, Maple can now solve dramatically more recurrence relations than before, including many third- and fourth-order cases that were previously beyond reach.

In fact, Maple can now fully solve over 94% of the 55,979 entries in the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS) that that can be shown to satisfy a linear recurrence relation. These advances reflect ongoing research into linear difference equations and their algorithmic implementation in Maple, continuing Maple’s long tradition of advancing the state of computer algebra.

Beyond recurrence solving, Maple 2026 includes many improvements across its core symbolic and numeric algorithms. Maple’s assumption system has been strengthened to improve reasoning under mathematical assumptions, and enhancements to the simplify, combine, and evalc commands allow Maple to produce more compact and mathematically natural forms for a wider range of expressions.

There are also improvements to Maple’s differential equation solvers, polynomial system solving, and numerical solving routines such as fsolve, along with updates to other foundational parts of the math library used throughout the system.

Taken together, these improvements expand the range of problems Maple can solve and improve the robustness, correctness, and efficiency of the results.

Maple has always offered extensive control over plotting options, but achieving consistent visual styling across multiple plots could require specifying many settings each time.

Maple 2026 introduces Plotting Themes, which allow you to define a plotting style once and apply it across many plots with a single option.

Themes make it easy to maintain consistent visual styles in worksheets, teaching materials, reports, and publications, while still allowing individual plots to override specific options when needed.

The image below shows an example of creating and applying a custom plotting theme. 

 

Maple continues to be widely used in classrooms around the world, and Maple 2026 includes several improvements designed to support teaching and learning.

The Check My Work system has been enhanced so Maple can recognize a wider variety of valid student solution steps and provide more accurate feedback.

Maple 2026 also improves the generation of similar practice problems, making it easier to create variations of a problem while preserving its mathematical structure.

In addition, Maple’s step-by-step solutions have been expanded to support more types of expressions, helping students better understand the reasoning behind the mathematics they’re learning.

Maple 2026 also introduces improvements for developers building advanced applications, along with performance enhancements across the system.

One particularly interesting addition is the new VectorSearch package, which implements a vector database directly inside Maple.

If you’re not familiar with vector databases, one way to think about them is through recommendation systems like Netflix or Spotify. Each movie or song can be represented by a vector containing thousands of numbers describing its characteristics—things like genre, pacing, or mood. When you watch something, the system finds other items whose vectors are closest to it, which is how recommendations are generated.

With the new VectorSearch package, Maple can store thousands (or more) of vectors and efficiently find the ones most similar to a given vector. This makes it easier to build applications involving machine learning, data analysis, and modern AI workflows directly in Maple.

Maple 2026 also delivers significant performance improvements. For example, operations involving quantities with units have been greatly optimized—some computations now run over 90 times faster, making Maple even more efficient for engineering and scientific workflows.

Maple 2026 also expands the benefits available through the Maplesoft Elite Maintenance Program (EMP). The new benefits include access to additional Maplesoft products and services:

  • Maple Learn, the online environment for teaching and learning mathematics
  • Maple Calculator Premium, bringing the power of Maple to your phone with full access to features like Solution Steps and Check My Work
  • Maple MCP, which allows you to connect Maple’s math engine to external AI tools so they can produce mathematical results you can trust

These additions extend Maple beyond the desktop, giving users powerful tools for learning, teaching, and exploring mathematics across web and mobile platforms, as well as through integrations with external AI tools.

This post only scratches the surface of what’s new in Maple 2026. There are many more improvements across the math library, programming tools, and performance.

To learn more about all the new features and enhancements in Maple 2026, visit the What’s New in Maple page on our website.

 

 

I think there may be a saboteur in the programming/Help department. For a beginner here are some cautions you WILL NOT FIND in Help system.

If you are writing a procedure and wisely choose to include a description:

format must be description " anything here " ;

MUST end with a colon or semicolon 
description MUST be lower case 
the comment MUST be enclosed in double quotes

If you want to view the description of procedure p
you MUST enter Describe (p) because describe(p) will not work nor will description (p);.

In future versions of Maple these rules may change-perhaps

format must be deScriPtiOn " anything here " ;#!!!
and if you want to view the description of procedure p you MUST enter DEsCriBbe ("p') ;

who knows what lies ahead?

The Autumn Issue is now up, at mapletransactions.org

This issue contains two Featured Contributions; a short but very interesting one by Gilbert Labelle on a topic very dear to my own heart, and a longer and also very interesting one by Wadim Zudilin.  I asked Doron Zeilberger about Wadim's paper, and he said "this is a true gem with lots of insight and making connections between different approaches."

The "Editor's Corner" paper is a little different, this time.  This paper is largely the work of my co-author, Michelle Hatzel, extracted and revised from her Masters' thesis which she defended successfully this past August.  I hope that you find it as interesting as I did.

 

We have three refereed contributions, a contribution on the use of Maple Learn in teaching, and a little note on my design of the 2026 Calendar for my upcoming SIAM book with Nic Fillion, as well.  All the images for the calendar were generated in Maple (as were most of the images in the book).

It's been fun to put this issue together (with an enormous amount of help from Michelle) and I hope that you enjoy reading it.

I would also like to thank the Associate Editors who handled the refereeing: Dhavide Aruliah, David Jeffrey, and Viktor Levandovskyy.

Maplesoft continues to bring technology, collaboration, and learning together. Here’s some of the exciting industry news from the world of web converting and high-precision manufacturing lines, and what’s new with MapleSim for Web Converting Systems software.

How is MapleSim helping web converters and manufacturers?

From EV batteries to flexible packaging and medical films, industries that rely on thin web materials are advancing at remarkable speed. To keep pace, engineers need tools that let them model, simulate, and optimize every detail of their process with accuracy and confidence. Processes that once relied on intuition and trial-and-error are now guided by advanced modeling and simulation, such as MapleSim.

Using MapleSim simulation, engineering teams can perform process validation testing virtually - saving time and money compared to physical testing. The virtual models are used to explore and accelerate production — and the new release of MapleSim delivers a powerful set of features to make that possible.


What’s new in the latest MapleSim release?

The new release (available today) enhances MapleSim’s ability to answer “what-if” questions about industrial systems, easily review and compare results, and find strategies to improve production.


For converters and web material manufacturers, it is now even easier to create models of roll-to-roll systems. The updates to MapleSim for web converting systems include pre-built components for modeling spans and applying control during rewinding and matching tension profiles with PLC settings. There is also a new Utilities section to help users to handle sensor data and perform common calculation tasks.

These all reduce the effort to build and update models and add more detail to the simulations. The result: faster to innovate, shorter testing cycles, and more value from every simulation.

You can read more about the MapleSim new features.

Announcing the new Research Partnership Program for MapleSim

We are pleased to announce a new collaboration between Maplesoft and the research teams that are actively advancing converting and web manufacturing processes.
The MapleSim for Web Converting Systems - Research Partnership Program:

  • To support research communities across the web handling industry by providing licenses for MapleSim for Web Converting Systems at NO COST.

Our goal is to equip researchers with the same advanced modeling and simulation tools used in industry, helping them explore new concepts, test ideas, and drive meaningful discoveries.

Focus areas for research include:

  • manufacturing foils, plastic films, non-wovens, and other thin web materials.
  • any specialty process for handling or producing medical equipment, semi-conductors, or EV batteries.

More details of the program and the application process are available on this page.
 

How Simulation Gives You Operational Insights

We have a new web series of articles “R2R Operational Insights” that showcase the ways MapleSim models deliver deeper insights, greater efficiency, and better product quality. These modeling use case articles are sprinkled with customer stories from the world of packaging, EV battery manufacturing, and printing.

You can browse the R2R Operational Insight articles here.

 

Conclusion: Try MapleSim for Yourself

Together, these updates make it easier than ever to simulate, innovate, and learn in web-based manufacturing and design.
-->Start your Free Trial!

 

We have just released updates to Maple and MapleSim.

Maple 2025.2 improvements include fixes to print layout, PDF export, tooltips for keyboard shortcuts, Plot Builder, and more. We recommend that all Maple 2025 users install this update. This update is available through Tools>Check for Updates in Maple, and is also available from the Maple 2025.2 download page, where you can find more details.

At the same time, we have also released an update to MapleSim, which includes enhanced tools for comparing models and analyzing simulation data, and improved runtime performance for MapleSim connectors.You can find more information on the MapleSim 2025.2 download page.

The need to solve quadratic equations never seems to disappear. Whether it is completing a physics problem, solving a differential equation, or performing equilibrium calculations in chemistry, quadratic equations are an integral part of all STEM-based disciplines.

 

Depending on the complexity of the quadratic equation, the typical 'guess-and-check' method taught in most high school classes can often be frustrating and time-consuming. Professor of mathematics Dr. Po-Shen Loh, in his new method shown here, recognizes some important properties of solutions to quadratic equations and integrates them into a more intuitive approach that students are much more likely to feel motivated by.

 

For example, consider the equation x^2 - 14x + 45 = 0. Most students are taught to first factor this equation by thinking of two numbers that multiply to 45 and add to -14. After trying multiple values, we would discover that those values are -5 and -9. We would use these values to factor the equation into the form (x-5)*(x-9) = 0. Setting each factor equal to zero, we would get x = 5 or x = 9. Equivalently, to solve for x more directly, we need two numbers that multiply to 45 and add to 14 (again, x = 5 and x = 9).

 

The only way to speed up this process of guess-and-check is to do enough similar problems until the guesses become second nature. Not to mention, this becomes exponentially more difficult as the coefficient on x^2 increases (for example, solving the equation 6x^2 + 7x - 20 = 0).

 

For the example above, Dr. Loh's method builds on a simple starting point:

 

(i) We know that the numbers (call them R and S) add to 14

(ii) We know that since the numbers add to 14, they must have a mean value of 14/2 = 7

(iii) If the two numbers have an average of 7, they must be an equal 'distance' (call this distance z) from 7

(iv) We can write the two numbers as R = 7+z and S = 7-z

(v) Since the numbers R and S multiply to 45, then (7+z)*(7-z) = 45 ⇒ 49 - z^2 = 45. In other words, z^2 = 4, so z = +2 or z = -2

(vi) The solution to the equation is then R = 7+2 = 9 and S = 7-2 = 5 (as we predicted)

 

We can generalize this idea for any complex coefficients a, b and c in the equation ax^2 + bx + c = 0 to actually prove the quadratic formula. However, using Dr. Loh's method on specific examples (as above) helps build intuition for why the quadratic formula works in the first place. Other proof methods such as completing the square are just as mathematically sound, but they do not utilize the mathematical instinct that makes solving a problem in mathematics so gratifying.

 

Although I am currently a student working for Maplesoft, I had not used Maple Learn extensively beforehand. Dr. Loh's idea of creating a more intuitive way to solve such a conventional problem inspired me to create a document in Maple Learn, linked here, outlining the steps above.

 

Learning new ways to solve a problem in mathematics is exciting, but it is often difficult to present in a way that is clear, visually-appealing and easy to create. Most online mathematical environments are difficult to navigate and typically lack visualizations to accompany an idea. With Maple Learn, it felt comforting to open a clean canvas where I was able to easily build a document in just a few hours that not only summarized the main ideas of this new method, but also showed the user why the method works using live animations and colour schemes (see some examples below).

 

 

I surprised myself (as well as my managers) by how quickly I was able to transfer all of my ideas into the document. I could also split related content into groups and use collapsible sections to keep the document uncluttered and easy to read.

 

I also took advantage of the freedom to explore other documents and directly reference them through hyperlinks.

 

Sometimes it can be difficult to follow a new concept without having some background information. Adding these references makes it simple for the reader to access supporting documents and ensure there are no knowledge gaps to be filled along the way. Once you make a document, you also have the option to publish it to your own gallery and make it public for others to use and learn from.

 

Maple Learn has been incredibly helpful for sharing the things that interest me the most. If you have something related to mathematics that excites you, try not to keep it to yourself. Consider using Maple Learn to share your ideas with the world and see your vision come to life!

Maple 2025.1

We have just released an update to Maple. Maple 2025.1 includes several enhancements to the new interface, as well as various small corrections throughout the product. As always, we recommend that all Maple 2025 users install this update.

In particular, please note that this update includes a fix to the problem where new documents were opening in a new window instead of a new tab.  Thanks for helping us, and other users, by letting us know!

This update is available through Tools>Check for Updates in Maple, and is also available from the Maple 2025.1 download page on web site, where you can also find more details.

MapleSim 2025

We are happy to announce that we just released MapleSim 2025. This release includes a new component library to support the modeling of motor drives and updates to several in-product apps that make it even easier to perform optimization and analysis.

See What’s New in MapleSim for details.

 

The link below goes to the Proceedings of the Maple 2024 Conference, which includes several articles that will be of interest to the readers of Maple Primes.

There may be one more paper coming in to the proceedings later as per policy; since most things are ready, away we go!

Proceedings of the Maple 2024 Conferenc

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Last Page 1 of 66