The recent Maple 2023 release comes with a multitude of new features, including a new Canvas Scripting Gallery full of templates for creating interactive Maple Learn documents.

The Maple Learn Scripting Gallery can be accessed through Maple, by searching “BuildInteractiveContent Maple2023” in the search bar at the top of the application and clicking on the only result that appears. This will bring you to the help page titled “Build and Share Interactive Content”, which can also be found by searching “scripting gallery” in the search bar of a Maple help page window. The link to the Maple Learn Scripting Gallery is found under the “Canvas Scripting” section on this help page and clicking on it will open a Maple workbook full of examples and templates for you to explore.

The interactive content in the Scripting Gallery is organized into five main categories – Graphing, Visualization, Quiz, Add-ons and Options, and Applications Optimized for Maple Learn – each with its own sub-categories, templates, and examples.

One of the example scripts that I find particularly interesting is the “Normal Distribution” script, under the Visualizations category.

All of the code for each of the examples and templates in the gallery is provided, so we can see exactly how the Normal Distribution script creates a Maple Learn canvas. It displays a list of grades, a plot for the grade distribution to later appear on, math groups for the data’s mean and variance, and finally a “Calculate” button that runs a function called UpdateStats.

The initial grades loaded into the document result in the below plot, created using Maple’s DensityPlot and Histogram functions, from the Statistics package. 

The UpdateStats function takes the data provided in the list of grades and uses a helper function, getDist, to generate the new plot to display the data, the distribution, the mean, and the variance. Then, the function uses a Script object to update the Maple Learn canvas with the new plot and information.

The rest of the code is contained in the getDist function, which uses a variety of functions from Maple’s Statistics package. The Normal Distribution script takes advantage of Maple’s ability to easily calculate mean and variance for data sets, and to use that information to create different types of random variable distributions.

Using the “Interactive Visualization” template, provided in the gallery, many more interactive documents can be created, like this Polyhedra Visualization and this Damped Harmonic Oscillator – both from the Scripted Gallery or like my own Linear Regression: Method of Least Squares document.

Another new feature of Maple 2023 is the Quiz Builder, also featured in the Scripting Gallery. Quizzes created using Quiz Builder can be displayed in Maple or launched as Maple Learn quizzes, and the process for creating such a quiz is short.

The QuizBuilder template also provides access to many structured examples, available from a dropdown list:

As an example, check out this Maple Learn quiz on Expected Value: Continuous Practice. Here is what the quiz looks like when generated in Maple:

This quiz, in particular, is “Fill-in the blank” style, but Maple users can also choose “Multiple Choice”, “True/False”, “Multiple Select”, or “Multi-Line Feedback”. It also makes use of all of the featured code regions from the template, providing functionality for checking inputted answers, generating more questions, showing comprehensive solutions, and providing a hint at the press of a button.

Check out the Maple Learn Scripting Gallery for yourself and see what kinds of interactive content you can make for Maple and Maple Learn!

In an age where our lives are increasingly integrated online, cybersecurity is more important than ever. Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting online information, systems, and networks from malicious parties. Whenever you access your email, check your online banking, or make a post on Facebook, you are relying on cybersecurity systems to keep your personal information safe. 

Requiring that users enter their password is a common security practice, but it is nowhere near hacker-proof. A common password-hacking strategy is the brute-force attack. This is when a hacker uses an automated program to guess random passwords until the right one is found. The dictionary attack is a similar hacking strategy, where guesses come from a list like the 10,000 Most Common Passwords.

The easiest way to prevent this kind of breach is to use strong passwords. First, to protect against dictionary attacks, never use a common password like “1234” or “password”. Second, to protect against brute-force attacks, consider how the length and characters used affect the guessability. Hackers often start by guessing short passwords using limited types of characters, so the longer and more special characters used, the better.

Using the Strong Password Exploration Maple Learn document, you can explore how susceptible your passwords may be to a brute-force attack. For example, a 6-character password using only lowercase letters and numbers could take as little as 2 seconds to hack.

Whereas an 8-character password using uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and 10 possible special characters could take more than 60 hours to crack.

These hacking times are only estimations, but they do provide insight into the relative strength of different passwords. To learn more about password possibilities, check out the Passwords Collection on Maple Learn

The areas of statistics and probability are my favorite in mathematics. This is because I like to be able to draw conclusions from data and predict the future with past trends. Probability is also fascinating to me since it allows us to make more educated decisions about real-life events. Since we are supposed to get a big snow storm in Waterloo, I thought I would write a blog post discussing conditional probability using the Probability Tree Generator, created by Miles Simmons.

If the probability of snowfall on any given day during a Waterloo winter is 0.75, the probability that the schools are closed given that it has snowed is 0.6, and the probability that the schools are closed given that it has hasn’t snowed is 0.1, then we get the following probability tree, created by Miles’s learn document:

From this information we can come to some interesting conclusions:

What is the probability that the schools are closed on a given day?

From the Law of total probability, we get:

Thus, during a very snowy Waterloo winter, we could expect a 0.475 chance of schools being closed on any given day. 

One of the features of this document is that the node probabilities are calculated. You can see this by comparing the second last step to the number at the end of probability trees' nodes.

What is the probability that it has snowed given that the schools are closed?

From Bayes’ Theorem, we get:

Thus, during a very snowy Waterloo winter, we expect there to be a probability of 0.947 that it has snowed if the schools are closed. 

We can also add more events to the tree. For example, if the students are happy or sad given that the schools are open:

Even though we would all love schools to be closed 47.5% of the winter days in Waterloo, these numbers were just for fun. So, the next time you are hoping for a snow day, make sure to wear your pajamas inside out and sleep with a spoon under your pillow that night!

To explore more probability tree fun, be sure to check out Miles’s Probability Tree Generator, where you can create your own probability trees with automatically calculated node probabilities and export your tree to a blank Maple Learn document. Finally, if you are interested in seeing more of our probability collection, you can find it here!

The moment we've all been waiting for has arrived: Maple 2023 is here!

With this release we continue to pursue our mission to provide powerful technology to explore, derive, capture, solve and disseminate mathematical problems and their applications, and to make math easier to learn, understand, and use. Bearing this in mind, our team of mathematicians and developers have dedicated the last year to adding new features and enhancements that not only improve the math engine but make that math engine more easily accessible within a user-friendly interface.

And if you ever wonder where our team gets inspiration, you don't need to look further than Maple Primes. Many of the improvements that went into Maple 2023 came as a direct result of feedback from users. I’ll highlight a few of those user-requested features below, and you can learn more about these, and many, many other improvements, in What’s New in Maple 2023.

• The Plot Builder in Maple 2023 now allows you to build interactive plot explorations where parameters are controlled by sliders or dials, and customize them as easily as you can other plots

• In Maple 2023, 2-D contour and density plots now feature a color bar to show the values of the gradations.

• For those who write a lot of code:  You can now open your .mpl Maple code files directly in Maple’s code editor, where you can  view and edit the file from inside Maple using the editor’s syntax highlighting, command completion, and automatic indenting.

• Integration has been improved in many ways. Here’s one of them:  The definite integration method that works via MeijerG convolutions now does a better job of checking conditions on parameters so that they are only applied under proper assumptions. It also tells you the conditions under which the method could have produced an answer, so if your problem does meet those conditions, you can add the appropriate assumptions to get your result.
• Many people have asked that we make it easier for them to create more complex interactive Math Apps and applications that require programming, such as interactive clickable plots, quizzes that provide feedback, examples that provide solution steps. And I’m pleased to announce that we’ve done that in Maple 2023 with the introduction of the Quiz Builder and the Canvas Scripting Gallery.
• • The new Quiz Builder comes loaded with sample quizzes and makes it easy to create your own custom quiz questions. Launch the quiz builder next time you want to author interactive quizzes with randomized questions, different response types, hints, feedback, and show the solution. It’s probably one of my favorite features in Maple 2023.

• The Scripting Gallery in Maple 2023 provides 44 templates and modifiable examples that make it easier to create more complex Math Apps and interactive applications that require programming. The Maple code used to build each application in the scripting gallery can be easily viewed, copied and modified, so you can customize specific applications or use the code as a starting point for your own work

• Finally, here’s one that is bound to make a lot of people happy: You can finally have more than one help page open at the same time!

For more information about all the new features and enhancements in Maple 2023, check out the What’s New in Maple 2023.

P.S. In case you weren’t aware - in addition to Maple, the Maplesoft Mathematics Suite includes a variety of other complementary software products, including online and mobile solutions, that help you teach and learn math and math-related courses.  Even avid Maple users may find something of interest!

Hello everyone! Alex, Sarah, and I decided to create this collection of financial literacy documents as we noticed a lack of resources for this strand in mathematics. With many curricula around the world implementing financial literacy concepts, we thought it might be useful not just for Ontario, but for many jurisdictions around the world. 

There are 4 documents in the Simple Interest collection; Introduction, Equation Generator, Mental Calculations, and Reflection. The Introduction is designed for intermediate and advanced level students as it introduces students to the concept of interest and how to calculate it. Students get to fill in the table by filling in the calculations on the right. This provides enough scaffolding so students of various grades can participate in this activity. 

The Equation Generator document uses sliders to help students investigate linear equations in the form of y=mx+b. It also relates the simple interest equation (I=Prt) to the linear equation by asking students to compare interest rates. The idea behind this document is to bridge concepts outlined in the 2021 grade 9 destreamed math curriculum; in particular, the financial literacy, and linear relations strands. The document provides some reflection questions for students to think about the relationship between the variables. 

The third document in the collection is the mental calculations document which presents a series of questions in increasing difficulty designed to help students compare interest rates. Students are intended to choose which scenario they think is more appropriate without using a calculator. There are hints provided on the right side if students wish for a hint, as well as explanations further to the right of the hints and answers below the main questions. Through our analysis of the curricula around the world, we noticed that many jurisdictions focus on mental math as a skill that their students should develop. Students may not always have access to a calculator and it is important for them to know how to make financially sound decisions or analyze advertisements that they may see around their neighbourhood.