As a writer, I left most of my mathematics knowledge in the classroom at high school, choosing words over numbers as my desired profession; however, with Maple Player on my iPad, I can feel myself returning to class and giving myself extra math homework just for an excuse to play with the fantastic new app.
The free iPad app uses desktop Maple, a software that allows anyone from Engineers to scientists to ambitious math students solve mathematical problems quickly and easily and accurately, and allows iPad users to access and utilize this software from their device. The mathematics is fairly advanced (particularly to someone who dropped math at 16!), however, even a mathematical layman such as I can recognize the sheer quality of the craftsmanship of this app.
The layout of Maple Player is fairly simple, with 13 different interactive calculators on the main screen; tap one of the calculators and the app zooms in on it; for example, ‘Approximating The Volume Of A Sphere Using Cylinders’ offers you explanations on how to go about solving this problem along with the visual aid of a 3D image of cylinders that you can move and navigate with your finger, as well as a slider that allows you to adjust the number of cylinders in the image. The fact that you can rotate these 3D plots just by stroking the screen is a huge advantage as it helps you think more laterally when musing over the problem.
There are many more functions to Maple Player, some of which will only be explainable by people with a good grasp of advanced mathematics, such as plotting arbitrary functions and calculating solutions to linear systems. However, finding the solutions to integrals, derivatives, and limits can be a fun challenge for beginners to advanced mathematics and the fun and accessible layout and interaction of the app can really help your learning process.
The ‘Information’ tab explains the evolution of Maple Player, telling users what to expect in the upcoming versions. The next version will grant iPad users access to an online repository of mathematical documents and the final version will allow users to upload documents to the repository for others to download. Therefore, you will be able to use any Maple document on the iPad, whether you get it from Maple player, another member of the Maple community, or you upload it yourself. This will be a huge boost to the interactive nature of the app as well as increasing the sense of community with other Maple Player users.
Summary
There’s no doubting that Maple Player appeals to a niche market, those that use mathematical equations and calculus in their studies, professional life or for their own personal pleasure. However, to those people Maple Player is an absolute necessity; the joy of solving mathematical problems coupled with the fun and interactive use of the iPad renders this app a must have for anyone interested in mathematics.
Pros
The app filters the documents in two ways, both by ‘Recent’ or ‘Name’; this is very helpful for finding your documents when you’re in a rush.
You essentially get a course in advanced mathematics for free. Take that, college fees!
The fact that they have grand ambitions for the improvement of the app, as well as the viable means to back them up means that being a member of the Maple Player community will only get better and better.
Room For Improvement
Is there anyway that they could include an abacus calculator for the more remedial students like me?! (Kidding…sort of.)
This makes e want to go back to math class! Great app.
Finally, an iPad app that allows you to practice advanced mathematics and looks cool! This is a seriously beneficial app for anyone interested in math and problem solving. Buy it. Oh yeah, it’s free…
I hzve reaqd so many content regarding the blogger lovers but this paragraph is truly a nice post, keep it up.