used it in math 171, 172, 221, and 308 in the late 90s. worthless waste of time

Don't know. I had a Math prof 5 years ago. His bread and butter was Maple. He asked me to write a letter in support - Engineering was pushing for a shift to Matlab. I didn't write it and glad I didn't. Matlab and Mathematica both better IMO

Math 151, 152 and 251 all use MATLAB now. I was a grad student/TA in the math department for the previous two years.

I never understood using computers to learning basic differentiation and integrals. You learn fundamentals like through drills and following the derivation.

What a colossal waste of resources....

MatLAB is the big push because it's used later on in the curriculum, at least in Mechanical.

The point of starting with the basics on the comp is that eventually you need to know how to do more complicated things and a lot of kids have never written anything codelike before...gotta crawl before you can walk.

Some profs still use Maple.

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Math 151, 152 and 251 all use MATLAB now. I was a grad student/TA in the math department for the previous two years.

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Never used it in 251.

We're supposed to use it in 308 but it's all dependent on the professor.

It really depends on what you are doing as to what program is better.

Matlab is good at matrix operations, as the name would suggest "matrix laboratory". Maple was used in my Math 308 class and I can see why. When you want to plot ALL the solutions to differential equations as vector fields, then something which is strongly symbolic is actually a better choice. Matlab acknowledged this because their symbolic toolbox is licensed from Maple. This is quite similar to Ansys buying Ansoft to obtain a decent magnetic solver. Ansys is great with thermodynamics and structure dynamics, but their magetic solver was HORRIBLE and took programming my own GUI to actually use. Ansoft via its RMXprt GUI lends itself excellently to the 2D and 3D FEM magnetic ODE solvers behind it.

Matlab is a good general tool when you expect singular solutions to your problems. Considering that undergrad textbooks and exams are written to ensure singular solutions and solvable problems, it is well suited for that application.

Also you can get the engine for MatLab for free, which is nice.

And a student version of the full MathWorks software (which is really just a fancy GUI and nice debugging features) is only $100.

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Math 151, 152 and 251 all use MATLAB now. I was a grad student/TA in the math department for the previous two years.
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Never used it in 251.

We're supposed to use it in 308 but it's all dependent on the professor.

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This is correct, matlab is not used in 251. Also what you use for 308 varies from maple to matlab to nothing at all. Our current prof has us watch him do stuff on the projector occasionally while other profs make their class do projects.

Does the Prof who carries his dog in one of his arms still teach DiffEQ?

I took 308 from that guy, he always had on a marathon shirt of some sort, jogging shorts and carried his dog in his arm. Dog fell asleep during class and he set it on the chair. Also referred to the computer as Mrs. Maple.

Professors are characters sometimes.

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Matlab is good at matrix operations, as the name would suggest "matrix laboratory". Maple was used in my Math 308 class and I can see why. When you want to plot ALL the solutions to differential equations as vector fields, then something which is strongly symbolic is actually a better choice

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Exactly, so time would be better spent problem solving than using a computer. Majors were you process huge numbers of data (fluids, thermo, EE, etc...)have numerical methods courses were Matlab can be introduced. A cal I, II, III, Diff Eq is focused on derivations on problem solving.

hombre in a semester long class, it would be nearly impossible to learn to do anything of value if you have to start from scratch in MatLab.

The math classes are 4 credit hours with lab hours (computer lab) built into the class. Getting a basis in computer methods for solving problems is a good thing.

I used Maple in Math 151, 152, and 251 in 2007 and 2008. Wish I would have had Matlab though. Never used Maple again but had to try and quickly learn Matlab for some uperlevel engineering classes.

Took from Math 150 to 602 and all the Maple we were forced to do was worthless.

I used maple in both 151/152.

I think there were some classes that used maple and some that used MatLAB. I don't know what the difference was or why it was split like that.

Either way, I hated maple and was pretty lucky I had a partner that understood it very well.

For some reason, they sucked at the actual math part of the class.

Matlab is relatively intuitive and easy to pick up. Engineers take course in numerical methods that do a could job of introducing Matlab. I think the time is better spent getting an intuitive understanding of calculs than trying to also learn a computer software.

Doing two things at once sometimes means in the end you aren't good at either.

[This message has been edited by hombre (edited 4/9/2012 10:17a).]

Who took a course in numerical methods at A&M? I know I didnt. My German coworkers did, my friend from Georgia Tech did, but we didnt have any courses while I was there.

Also no one knows the prof with the dog huh?

The maple kind?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeKSiCQkPw

[This message has been edited by TX87JL09 (edited 4/10/2012 8:51a).]

I took a numerical methods class. MEEN 357.

Hrm maybe its a MEEN thing .. ELEN didnt have that at least not when I was there. I think Im also one of the last who HAD to take Thermo and Statics/Dynamics as an ELEN.

Yeah one of my friends is an ELEN and he didn't have to take those I don't think.

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It really depends on what you are doing as to what program is better.

Matlab is good at matrix operations, as the name would suggest "matrix laboratory". Maple was used in my Math 308 class and I can see why. When you want to plot ALL the solutions to differential equations as vector fields, then something which is strongly symbolic is actually a better choice. Matlab acknowledged this because their symbolic toolbox is licensed from Maple. This is quite similar to Ansys buying Ansoft to obtain a decent magnetic solver. Ansys is great with thermodynamics and structure dynamics, but their magetic solver was HORRIBLE and took programming my own GUI to actually use. Ansoft via its RMXprt GUI lends itself excellently to the 2D and 3D FEM magnetic ODE solvers behind it.

Matlab is a good general tool when you expect singular solutions to your problems. Considering that undergrad textbooks and exams are written to ensure singular solutions and solvable problems, it is well suited for that application.

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The lack of..ummm...that...was one of the few benefits of being a liberal arts major.

I took a numerical methods class too. Hated it...

Civil has a numerical methods/matlab class.