What is Maple?

Much of your mathematical background has probably been focused on developing the ability to solve equations and explore functions. The sophisticated manipulation of symbols and expressions that you use to solve equations and investigate functions can also be performed by software packages called computer algebra systems (CAS). A CAS can be use to generate the exact symbolic solutions you obtained by hand, the numerical approximations you found using a calculator, and the graphs you have drawn. Maple is one of several CAS's; other major examples are Mathematica, Macsyma, Derive, and MathCad.

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