The following is an adapted version of the slide deck from a presentation I gave to the University of Ottawa Math Club session of November 29, 2024, entitled "Introduction to Computer Algebra and Maxima". Most of the presentation was live-coded, so be sure to check out the linked Maxima worksheets as you read this. Read more...

Will I ever learn my lesson? Probably not. I suspect most people in math have the same problem: you buy a new book and have all sorts of grand plans about going through it and mastering all its theorems, etc. etc. That was me in February, when I ordered a copy of Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces by Kristopher Tapp. Read more...

I was reading the Wikipedia page for the famous Lorenz system of differential equations, and saw a nice animated plot of the phase space written in the Julia language. Among the other code examples on that page is a solution for Maxima, which outputs the following when run: It's not a bad plot, but I thought it could be improved. Read more...