Maxima by Example, Chapter 4: Solving Equations

Ted Woollett

  1. --mbe4solve.pdf : Jan. 29, 2009, Maxima 5.17.1, 48 pages
  2. --mbe4solve.tex : Jan. 29, 2009, Latex code file
  3. --mymnewton.mac : Jan. 29, 2009, Maxima 5.17.1
  4. --mbe4solve.txt : cut and paste code: April 9, 2008, Maxima 5.14

Chapter 4 Topics

  1. One Equation or Expression: Symbolic Solution or Roots (solve)
  2. One Equation Numerical Solutions: allroots, realroots, find_root
  3. Two or More Equations: Symbolic and Numerical Solutions: (linsolve, linsolve_by_lu,
  4. eliminate, newton, mnewton, implicit_plot, draw package implicit)

Chapter 4 provides numerous examples of using Maxima tools to solve equations. Extra attention has been given to matrix methods for sets of linear equations, using linsolve_by_lu. The chapter ends with an interactive work session implementing a homemade "mymnewton" which is followed by creation of a homemade mymnewton function which has at its core a linsolve_by_lu matrix based function. Readers can download the text file "mymnewton.mac" and experiment with the code and experiment with adapting the code for their own uses.

Many of the examples in Chapter 4 are related to common questions sent in to the "Maxima Mailing List".