Hi,
I'm a blind student in Australia using maxima to complete the year 11
"math methods" course, as the standard touch screen devices are totally
inaccessible for me.
Maxima has served me very well and I'm enjoying using it. I have a couple
of queries though.
1) Is it possible with maxima to find the local minimums/maximums of a
graph, along with the absolute/global minimum and maximum? I'm using the
command line interface...
2) When graphing with maxima, what is the best way to choose a suitable
x range for the plot2d argument? Is it possible to mark the major points
of my graphs (tp, min/max, end points, intercepts intersections etc.?)
Is there anyway to permanently set some variables like gnuplot_term so I
don't have to type so many arguments for the plot2d command?
3) Suppose I have 5 (x,y) coordinates. On the standard casio devices at
school these points can be punched in and the user may trial a linear,
quadratic or cubic equation to see which is the best fit for the
points. The calculator provides a number of how successful the equation
was eg. linear, quadratic or cubic. Is it possible to find the equation
for a set of points with maxima?
4) Finally, I'm having trouble solving some more complicated equations
with maxima. According to my text book there is real solutions. How can
I find the real solution for the below equation? Input/output is
below. (Note, I'm not familiar with complex numbers.)
(%i2) float(solve(x^3-17*x^2-56*x+1153=0));
(%o2) [x = (- 0.86602540378444 %i - 0.5)
1/3
(274.3897100165438 %i - 235.8703703703704)
50.77777777777778 (0.86602540378444 %i - 0.5)
+ --------------------------------------------- + 5.666666666666667,
1/3
(274.3897100165438 %i - 235.8703703703704)
1/3
x = (0.86602540378444 %i - 0.5) (274.3897100165438 %i -
235.8703703703704)
50.77777777777778 (- 0.86602540378444 %i - 0.5)
+ ----------------------------------------------- + 5.666666666666667,
1/3
(274.3897100165438 %i - 235.8703703703704)
1/3
x = (274.3897100165438 %i - 235.8703703703704)
50.77777777777778
+ --------------------------------------------- + 5.666666666666667]
1/3
(274.3897100165438 %i - 235.8703703703704)
If anyone can address any of my questions I would greatly
appreciated. Please let me know if I need to provide any more
information.
Thanks very much.
Dan