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MaplePrimes Posts are for sharing your experiences, techniques and opinions about Maple, MapleSim and related products, as well as general interests in math and computing.

Maple Companion Update

by: Karishma 695 Product: Maple Calculator

May 06 2020

11 0

I’m extremely pleased to introduce the newest update to the Maple Companion. In this time of wide-spread remote learning, tools like the Maple Companion are more important than ever, and I’m happy that our efforts are helping students (and some of their parents!) with at least one small aspect of their life. Since we’ve added a lot of useful features since I last posted about this free mobile app, I wanted to share the ones I’m most excited about.

(If you haven’t heard about the Maple Companion app, you can read more about it here.)

If you use the app primarily to move math into Maple, you’ll be happy to hear that the automatic camera focus has gotten much better over the last couple of updates, and with this latest update, you can now turn on the flash if you need it. For me, these changes have virtually eliminated the need to fiddle with the camera to bring the math in focus, which sometimes happened in earlier versions.

If you use the app to get answers on your phone, that’s gotten much better, too. You can now see plots instantly as you enter your expression in the editor, and watch how the plot changes as you change the expression. You can also get results to many numerical problems results immediately, without having to switch to the results screen. This “calculator mode” is available even if you aren’t connected to the internet. Okay, so there aren’t a lot of students doing their homework on the bus right now, but someday!

Speaking of plots, you can also now view plots full-screen, so you can see more of plot at once without zooming and panning, squinting, or buying a bigger phone.

Finally, if English is not you or your students’ first language, note that the app was recently made available in Spanish, French, German, Russian, Danish, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese.

As always, we’d love you hear your feedback and suggestions. Please leave a comment, or use the feedback forms in the app or our web site.

Visit Maple Companion to learn more, find links to the app stores so you can download the app, and access the feedback form. If you already have it installed, you can get the new release simply by updating the app on your phone.

Moneyball with Maple 2: The Search for Even More...

by: MapleMathMatt 427 Product: Maple 2020

May 04 2020

10 0

Misinterpretation flattening the US log graph...

by: Christopher2222 5715 Product: Maple

May 02 2020

5 3

Something a while ago made me wonder if people were interpretting the results of flattening the covid19 curve wrong. Log graphs are good way to display a wide range of data in a compact way, but if you can't interpret it properly then you might as well think apples are oranges. There was something someone said not to long ago that I didn't believe. That person was Dr. Fauci, an American physician and immunologist who served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. On April 9, 2020 he said, on the final death toll of the U.S. for Coronavirus, and I quote "looks more like 60,000 than the 100,000 to 200,000" U.S. officials had previously estimated ... Back then I thought he was wrong, and actually now, he is wrong.

Some people just don't understand log graphs and I believe a lot of people are misinterpretting them. Take a linear graph increasing in time and put it on a log scale and you naturally get a "flattening" curve without even doing anything. But let's see what Dr. Fauci was seeing, and how he and likely many others, are misinterpretting the graphs.

Taking data from Worldometers.info/coronavirus we gather the total deaths

We will graph the data from when there were more than 100 deaths and up until April 9th when he made his prediction.

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a := plots:-listplot(USTotalDeaths[32 .. 55], axis[2] = [mode = log], tickmarks = [[seq(i-31 = USTotaldeathsdates[i], i = 32 .. 55)], [100 = "100", 1000 = "1K", 10000 = "10K", 100000 = "100K", 1000000 = "1M"]], view = [default, 100 .. 1000000], color = "#FF9900", thickness = 6, labels = ["", "Total Coronavirus Deaths"], labeldirections = [default, vertical])

$PLOT(CURVES(Matrix(24, 2, {(1, 1) = 1.0, (1, 2) = 121.0, (2, 1) = 2.0, (2, 2) = 171.0, (3, 1) = 3.0, (3, 2) = 239.0, (4, 1) = 4.0, (4, 2) = 309.0, (5, 1) = 5.0, (5, 2) = 374.0, (6, 1) = 6.0, (6, 2) = 509.0, (7, 1) = 7.0, (7, 2) = 689.0, (8, 1) = 8.0, (8, 2) = 957.0, (9, 1) = 9.0, (9, 2) = 1260.0, (10, 1) = 10.0, (10, 2) = 1614.0, (11, 1) = 11.0, (11, 2) = 2110.0, (12, 1) = 12.0, (12, 2) = 2754.0, (13, 1) = 13.0, (13, 2) = 3251.0, (14, 1) = 14.0, (14, 2) = 4066.0, (15, 1) = 15.0, (15, 2) = 5151.0, (16, 1) = 16.0, (16, 2) = 6394.0, (17, 1) = 17.0, (17, 2) = 7576.0, (18, 1) = 18.0, (18, 2) = 8839.0, (19, 1) = 19.0, (19, 2) = 10384.0, (20, 1) = 20.0, (20, 2) = 11793.0, (21, 1) = 21.0, (21, 2) = 13298.0, (22, 1) = 22.0, (22, 2) = 15526.0, (23, 1) = 23.0, (23, 2) = 17691.0, (24, 1) = 24.0, (24, 2) = 19802.0}, datatype = float[8])), COLOUR(RGB, 1.00000000, .60000000, 0.), THICKNESS(6), _AXIS[2](_MODE(1)), AXESTICKS([1 = "Mar 17", 2 = "Mar 18", 3 = "Mar 19", 4 = "Mar 20", 5 = "Mar 21", 6 = "Mar 22", 7 = "Mar 23", 8 = "Mar 24", 9 = "Mar 25", 10 = "Mar 26", 11 = "Mar 27", 12 = "Mar 28", 13 = "Mar 29", 14 = "Mar 30", 15 = "Mar 31", 16 = "Apr 01", 17 = "Apr 02", 18 = "Apr 03", 19 = "Apr 04", 20 = "Apr 05", 21 = "Apr 06", 22 = "Apr 07", 23 = "Apr 08", 24 = "Apr 09"], [100 = "100", 1000 = "1K", 10000 = "10K", 100000 = "100K", 1000000 = "1M"]), AXESLABELS("", "Total Coronavirus Deaths", FONT(DEFAULT), DEFAULT, VERTICAL), VIEW(DEFAULT, 100 .. 1000000))$

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$plots:-display(a, b, title = "Total Deaths \n (Logarithmic scale)\n", titlefont = ["Helvetica", 18], size = [681, 400])$

Just by looking at the graph you can imagine Dr. Fauci saying look at that graph starting to level off and he would extrapolate an imaginary line that could if you wanted to level off around where he said 60,000. And that's the confusion people have with these log graphs - people misinterpret them.

Here's what it looks like today

a2 := plots:-listplot(USTotalDeaths[32 .. ()], axis[2] = [mode = log], tickmarks = [[seq(i-31 = USTotaldeathsdates[i], i = 32 .. nops(USTotaldeathsdates))], [100 = "100", 1000 = "1K", 10000 = "10K", 100000 = "100K", 1000000 = "1M"]], view = [default, 100 .. 1000000], color = "#FF9900", thickness = 6, labels = ["", "Total Coronavirus Deaths"], labeldirections = [default, vertical])

$PLOT(CURVES(Matrix(46, 2, {(1, 1) = 1.0, (1, 2) = 121.0, (2, 1) = 2.0, (2, 2) = 171.0, (3, 1) = 3.0, (3, 2) = 239.0, (4, 1) = 4.0, (4, 2) = 309.0, (5, 1) = 5.0, (5, 2) = 374.0, (6, 1) = 6.0, (6, 2) = 509.0, (7, 1) = 7.0, (7, 2) = 689.0, (8, 1) = 8.0, (8, 2) = 957.0, (9, 1) = 9.0, (9, 2) = 1260.0, (10, 1) = 10.0, (10, 2) = 1614.0, (11, 1) = 11.0, (11, 2) = 2110.0, (12, 1) = 12.0, (12, 2) = 2754.0, (13, 1) = 13.0, (13, 2) = 3251.0, (14, 1) = 14.0, (14, 2) = 4066.0, (15, 1) = 15.0, (15, 2) = 5151.0, (16, 1) = 16.0, (16, 2) = 6394.0, (17, 1) = 17.0, (17, 2) = 7576.0, (18, 1) = 18.0, (18, 2) = 8839.0, (19, 1) = 19.0, (19, 2) = 10384.0, (20, 1) = 20.0, (20, 2) = 11793.0, (21, 1) = 21.0, (21, 2) = 13298.0, (22, 1) = 22.0, (22, 2) = 15526.0, (23, 1) = 23.0, (23, 2) = 17691.0, (24, 1) = 24.0, (24, 2) = 19802.0, (25, 1) = 25.0, (25, 2) = 22038.0, (26, 1) = 26.0, (26, 2) = 24062.0, (27, 1) = 27.0, (27, 2) = 25789.0, (28, 1) = 28.0, (28, 2) = 27515.0, (29, 1) = 29.0, (29, 2) = 30081.0, (30, 1) = 30.0, (30, 2) = 32712.0, (31, 1) = 31.0, (31, 2) = 34905.0, (32, 1) = 32.0, (32, 2) = 37448.0, (33, 1) = 33.0, (33, 2) = 39331.0, (34, 1) = 34.0, (34, 2) = 40901.0, (35, 1) = 35.0, (35, 2) = 42853.0, (36, 1) = 36.0, (36, 2) = 45536.0, (37, 1) = 37.0, (37, 2) = 47894.0, (38, 1) = 38.0, (38, 2) = 50234.0, (39, 1) = 39.0, (39, 2) = 52191.0, (40, 1) = 40.0, (40, 2) = 54256.0, (41, 1) = 41.0, (41, 2) = 55412.0, (42, 1) = 42.0, (42, 2) = 56795.0, (43, 1) = 43.0, (43, 2) = 59265.0, (44, 1) = 44.0, (44, 2) = 61655.0, (45, 1) = 45.0, (45, 2) = 63856.0, (46, 1) = 46.0, (46, 2) = 65753.0}, datatype = float[8])), COLOUR(RGB, 1.00000000, .60000000, 0.), THICKNESS(6), _AXIS[2](_MODE(1)), AXESTICKS([1 = "Mar 17", 2 = "Mar 18", 3 = "Mar 19", 4 = "Mar 20", 5 = "Mar 21", 6 = "Mar 22", 7 = "Mar 23", 8 = "Mar 24", 9 = "Mar 25", 10 = "Mar 26", 11 = "Mar 27", 12 = "Mar 28", 13 = "Mar 29", 14 = "Mar 30", 15 = "Mar 31", 16 = "Apr 01", 17 = "Apr 02", 18 = "Apr 03", 19 = "Apr 04", 20 = "Apr 05", 21 = "Apr 06", 22 = "Apr 07", 23 = "Apr 08", 24 = "Apr 09", 25 = "Apr 10", 26 = "Apr 11", 27 = "Apr 12", 28 = "Apr 13", 29 = "Apr 14", 30 = "Apr 15", 31 = "Apr 16", 32 = "Apr 17", 33 = "Apr 18", 34 = "Apr 19", 35 = "Apr 20", 36 = "Apr 21", 37 = "Apr 22", 38 = "Apr 23", 39 = "Apr 24", 40 = "Apr 25", 41 = "Apr 26", 42 = "Apr 27", 43 = "Apr 28", 44 = "Apr 29", 45 = "Apr 30", 46 = "May 01"], [100 = "100", 1000 = "1K", 10000 = "10K", 100000 = "100K", 1000000 = "1M"]), AXESLABELS("", "Total Coronavirus Deaths", FONT(DEFAULT), DEFAULT, VERTICAL), VIEW(DEFAULT, 100 .. 1000000))$

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$plots:-display(a2, b2, title = "Total Deaths \n (Logarithmic scale)\n", titlefont = ["Helvetica", 18], size = [681, 400])$

One still could think and interpret that graph at levelling off to maybe 100,000. I sense another Dr. Fauci prediction?

Let's take a look at the linear graph

a3 := plots:-listplot(USTotalDeaths[32 .. ()], tickmarks = [[seq(i-31 = USTotaldeathsdates[i], i = 32 .. nops(USTotaldeathsdates))], [20000 = "20K", 40000 = "40K", 60000 = "60K", 80000 = "80K"]], view = [default, 100 .. 80000], color = "#FF9900", thickness = 6, labels = ["", "Total Coronavirus Deaths"], labeldirections = [default, vertical])

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