Dear Maple users

I know how to fit a function with some parameters to some data, but how can it be done if the data is 2-dimensional? I mean: I have some time array T, some X array and some Y array. How do I fit a function with certain parameters to the data: (x(t),y(t)) to fit (X(T), y(T)), ...

Erik

Dear Maple users

Physical experiment: I dropped a ball with low mass from a height of approximately 7 meters and wanted to test if the air resistance was proportional to the square of the velocity. I filmed the fall and used the program Logger Pro to collect data: a number of datapoints (time,height) was collected. I copy/pasted the datapoints into MS Excel, from where I could import data into Maple via Tools > Assistants > Import Data ... Then I wanted to make a fit with the theoretical solution, given by a function having just one parameter: the Drag coefficient. Unfortunately I received an error "complex values encountered" (see below). I can solve the problem manual by making a number of guesses for the drag coefficient, until the theoretical curve approximates the data points well. I wanted to make Maple do the fitting job, though. I will appreciate if someone could give an idea how to fit the data properly.

NB! Mass m and g is defined above in the Maple document. The Statistics and plots package is called too.

Dear Maple users

An engineering student asked me how Maple is handling complex numbers in polar form. He told me that his fellow students are using another CAS, whereas he himself prefer Maple. When making calculations with AC currents having different phases the other students were using the easy notation depicted in the first line on the picture below. Obviously here the angle (argument) is measured in degrees. I tried to perform the same calculations in Maple, but found it to require a very heavy notation: the other three lines on the picture. Now my question is: Does it really have to be that messy, or maybe there are some package, which will accomplish the task in a more neat way? I mean it is a rather common operation in the engineering sciences.

NB! Of couse one can argue about the educational value of using the notation of the other CAS! From that viewpoint they will probably not learn anything ...

Regards,

Erik

Dear Maple users

Sometimes I would like to place certain Maple content on my website, for example making it possible for the user to rotate 3d objects (created in Maple) directly on the webpage, in the browser. I did that on one of my own webpages, written in Danish though:

http://www.matematiksider.dk/soapbubbles.html

If you scroll to the Catenoid shape, almost at the bottom of the page, one should be able to click this object to have a Javaapplett started. I made this years ago with the help of the great tools created by Konrad Polthier:

http://www.javaview.de/maple/index.html

It wasn't easy, but I made it work. Things have changed since that time, however. Java is more and more "in bad standing". I was blocked when I tried opening it because of security. Banks is looking for alternatives, also because of security. And the mostly used browser now, Chrome, has stopped supporting it.

Now my question: Is there an alternative? Will HTML5 make it possible to make some kind of "Maple plugin" for Interactive Maple objects to be placed on webpages and interacted with in a Webbrowsers?

Erik

Dear Maple users

I am delighted that Maple has builtin commands to plot so many polyhedrons in 3D. Here I am talking about the polyhedraplot command in the plots package. I was however disappointed that the socalled Truncated Icosahedron is not supported (not present in the supported list ...). My first question is:

1. Why isn't it supported?

It seems more relevant than many of the other polyhedrons which are supported. It is a member of the Archimedian Solids (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truncated_icosahedron). Besides it is the basic structure for soccer footballs. I found out that a TruncatedIcosahedron command is available in the geom3d package. This command is able to deliver data for the faces and more. With this command I succeded in writing a small program to actually plot this polyhedron in 3D:

-----------------------------------------------------

restart;
with(geom3d):
with(plots):
TruncatedIcosahedron(football,point(C,(0,0,0)),1):

PlotFootball:=proc(tr::float)
    
    local i::integer,
         FootballFace::Vector(datatype=float[8]),
         plotFace::Vector(datatype=float[8]);    
    
    for i from 1 to 32 do
        FootballFace[i]:=faces(football)[i];
        plotFace[i]:=polygonplot3d(Matrix(FootballFace[i]),axes=none,scaling=constrained,transparency=tr);
    end do;
    
    display(seq(plotFace[i],i=1..32)):
    
end proc:

PlotFootball(0.00);

-----------------------------------------------------

Since I am not really experienced in programming in Maple, here is my last question:

2. Can I simplify something in my code above?

Best wishes,

Erik