I am trying to calculate deflections of a beam (under their own weight) on multiple supports with a (nonsymmetric) overhang on either end. I've done the calculations by hand but would really like to write something in Maple to do it as I have alot of configurations to calculate. Can anyone help or give me some suggests? The way I have calculated the deflections involves calculating the reaction forces on the beam. Then calculating at general points along the beam. Integrating to give the bending moment M. Setting boundary conditions (such as M=0 at ends,M=M at supports etc). Then the deflection of the beam is given by y=(W/IE)*int(int(M)) subject to boundary conditions (y=0 at supports y'=y' at supports) where W=Load per unit mass, I=second moment of area E=Young's Modulus.

Dr. Sarah J. Greenwald, Appalachian State University, and Dr. Andrew Nestler, Santa Monica College have put together a site about mathematics and The Simpsons,including an exhaustive list of all math references on the show, relevant images, and the math background of the writers. They use this material to introduce concepts, motivate students and reduce math anxiety, apparently. Aside from its potential educational value, it's fun. See Simpson's Math. eithne

I would like to know how to tell Maple not to assume that two things commute, that is, AB != BA. I would like to be able to have maple expand expressions such as

(A+B)^2 = A^2 + AB + BA + B^2

instead of having it collect terms and ignore the multiplication order as it does when I use the "expand()" function.

Need to solve the following equation for real roots:
x^4 + 5*x^3 + 4*x = sin(x), with Digits:=6
it is giving me only one real root, but during the plot it shows two intersections suggesting two real roots. How can i overcome this problem?

I think Maple should have compression in the .mw format. I don't care if it breaks backwards compatibility, it should be an option. Later you can make it the default. I recently looked at this post, which links to an 11MB worksheet. Using "zip" compressed it down to 60KB. This is beyond bad - it's obscene! Note that this would also fix the problem of broken mail servers corrupting .mw attachments. Just swipe some FreeBSD code and put this feature in. Please!

Whenever I visit San Diego, I never miss a chance to go up to Palomar Observatory. It is the home of the legendary Hale 200 inch telescope that was the reigning champion among telescopes until about 25 years ago. It is perched atop Palomar mountain and the building is open to the public. You can see through a window, the famed instrument though you cannot actually approach it. The telescope aside, it's an amazing drive from San Diego to the mountain as it goes through some of the most scenic areas in Southern California. If you have half a day or if you're driving from San Diego to Los Angeles, it's a great way to see the country and to visit a significant site. Great picnic areas and a little gift shop as well.

Sage, and Pari are specialized computer algebra systems. This online tool offers convenient access to these systems.

Professor Mark Bridges of Northeastern University has been compling a blog of commentary on various mathematical references that one encounters on the TV show Numb3rs. See his BLOG site and a recent news article.

What is the latest version of Maple 10 available? ( as in 10.x)

I'd like to gauge interest in an online session on authoring Maple documents using new features in Maple 10: document blocks, embedded components, tables, autoexec code, task templates, embedded assessment, 2d math, etc. Would you participate in such a (free) session? -Laurent

Similarly to searching of digits of π, Maple can access other Internet resources. In particular, here is an example of accessing MAGMA through William Stein's online SAGE/MAGMA/PARI calculator,

i am trying to solve: L_fire_7 := 0.5*trans_7 * p *((2 * h * c^2 / (lambda_7)^5) * (1 / (exp(h*c/(k*lambda_7*T)) -1))) = L7; L_fire_21 := 0.83*trans_21 * p *((2 * h * c^2 / (lambda_21)^5) * (1 / (exp(h*c/(k*lambda_21*T)) -1))) = L21; for T and p using PolynomialSystem. the result contains _X. i have no idea what that symbol means and can't find anything in the manual nor on the web. any help is highly appreciated! (also in regard to how to solve this better than using PolynomialSystem). -florian

Will mentioned in his blog a problem of finding the first occurence in π the given sequence of digits - a birthday, for example. It can be done in Maple through the search engine at http://www.angio.net/pi/piquery as follows,

FYI, a few people have reported the activation e-mails that is sent after registration is not arriving. If you are a new user and you don't receive a message from us within one hour, please e-mail us. Thanks for your patience. T4.