Using maxima for high school mathematics



On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 07:46:32AM +0200, Mario Rodriguez wrote:
> > Anyway if you can tell me how it works I'll hopefully make some sense
> > out of it:)
> > 
> 
> Hello,

Hi,

> 
> The curve is plotted inside a box, the '-' symbols are used to draw the
> upper and lower segments of the box, while the '|' symbols are used to
> draw the lateral segments.

Ah, ok

> 
> There are some plus symbols '+' on these lines. They are tick marks for
> ordinates and abscissas.

What are these? I've never come across them do I need to be worried
about them?

> 
> Finally, the curve is also plotted with '+' symbols. Depending on the
> slope of the curve, more than one plus symbol can be written.

Yes indeed, I can now make sense of it all! Very good, this will be very
useful indeed. 

How can I figure out what + signs are part of the curve without getting
confused with the other individual + signs? 

Taking this concept slightly further, does this mean in theory I could
convert other images (diagrams for example), to ascii?

> 
> At this moment, package draw does not support the 'dumb' terminal, but
> this workaround should work:
> 
> load(draw) $
> set_draw_defaults (user_preamble="set terminal dumb")$
> 
> /* a parabola */
> draw2d(explicit(x^2,x,-1,1))$
> 
> /* the sine */
> draw2d(explicit(sin(x),x,0,4*%pi))$

Yes, that's what I did.
> There is also the plot2d function, which might be easier for you. I
> think something as
> 
> plot2d(x^2,[x,-1,1], [gnuplot_term, "dumb"]);

Makes sense.

> 
> should work, but I don't get anything. Perhaps someone else can help us
> with the code.

Yes, I don't get any output either. Unless the output is being
redirected somewhere else?

Thanks for your help,

Dan