>>>>> "Daniel" == Daniel Dalton <daniel.dalton47 at gmail.com> writes:
Daniel> 1) Is it possible with maxima to find the local minimums/maximums of a
Daniel> graph, along with the absolute/global minimum and maximum? I'm using the
Daniel> command line interface...
If you have a symbolic expression, can't you compute the derivative
and use a numerical method to find the zeroes? You can try solve or
mnewton or minpack_solve to find the zeroes.
Daniel> 2) When graphing with maxima, what is the best way to choose a suitable
Daniel> x range for the plot2d argument? Is it possible to mark the major points
Daniel> of my graphs (tp, min/max, end points, intercepts intersections etc.?)
Daniel> Is there anyway to permanently set some variables like gnuplot_term so I
Daniel> don't have to type so many arguments for the plot2d command?
Look at set_plot_option. You can set things like gnuplot_term there.
Daniel> 3) Suppose I have 5 (x,y) coordinates. On the standard casio devices at
Daniel> school these points can be punched in and the user may trial a linear,
Daniel> quadratic or cubic equation to see which is the best fit for the
Daniel> points. The calculator provides a number of how successful the equation
Daniel> was eg. linear, quadratic or cubic. Is it possible to find the equation
Daniel> for a set of points with maxima?
Sure, but it looks like there's nothing completely builtin. You can
do a least-squares fit using lbfgs or minpack_lsquares to produce the
equation. But you'll have to set up the equations appropriately
before calling these routines.
Ray