Some useful Maple commands

The following commands are briefly summarized for your use. For further information about any of these commands, as well as examples of their usage, use the on-line Help Browser or Keyword Search. Note: The plotting commands we will be using are described in the next section.

evalf

This command is used to evaluate a symbolic expression numerically to n digits accuracy. It can be found in the Help Browser under .

     evalf(expr, n);

simplify

This command simplifies the expression entered. It has several options associated to it. Consult the Help Browser under .

     simplify(expr);

solve, fsolve

These commands can be used to solve an equation or set of equations for a variable or set of variables. The fsolve command solves the equations numerically. The solve command can be found in the Help Browser under . fsolve is found in the Help Browser under . The syntax is

     solve({equations},{variables});
     fsolve({equations},{variables});

The following commands are used to do calculus in Maple.

limit

This command computes the limit of f as x approaches a. It can be found in the Help Browser under

  
     limit(f,x=a);

To compute a one-sided limit use

     limit(f,x=a,dir);

where dir is left or right

diff

This command is used to compute the (partial) derivative of a function. It can be found in the Help Browser under . To differentiate a function f with respect to the variables x1, x2, use

     diff(f, x1, x2, ..., xn);

int

This command can be used to calculate the indefinite or definite integral of a function f with respect to a variable x. It can be found in the Help Browser under To compute the indefinite integral use

     int(f, x);

To compute the definite integral use

     int(f, x=a..b);

To numerically evaluate the definite integral, use

     evalf(Int(f, x=a..b));