In addition to Maple, this book introduces computer algebra. Chapter 1 is devoted to this purpose, and the rest of the chapters implicitly contain many of the problems and techniques involved in this new discipline in computational mathematics. The book presents an interesting overview of the applications of computer algebra in science and technology, including applications to research in mathematics, chemistry, physics, and robotics. The last chapter is devoted to examples in which computer algebra and Maple are used to deal with real problems arising in practice, such as the kinematics of the Stanford manipulator, geometry of molecules, and control theory.

This book can be used as an intelligent user manual for Maple because it presents most Maple commands. The author discusses common problems that arise when a command is not used properly, and gives solutions to these problems. This book is well designed to be used as a textbook, since every topic is first presented by means of several examples, then the full syntax of the commands involved is presented, and finally the author presents the most common errors that occur when using these commands. Moreover, every chapter ends with exercises (a total of 152 are included in the book), allowing the reader to experiment with the commands covered in the chapter.

The book is divided into 18 chapters, which can be classified in three groups. The first section, formed by the first chapter, presents computer algebra and computer algebra systems in comparison with the usual systems in numerical analysis. Heck defines computer algebra as the discipline of computational mathematics whose objectives are the study, design, and implementation of algorithms that compute with symbols representing mathematical objects, including numbers, polynomials, functions, systems of algebraic or differential equations, and algebraic structures. This introduction to computer algebra contains several examples that are solved using Maple.

The second group, containing chapters 2 to 9, 12, and 13, is a tutorial on Maple, presenting the basics of this system: numbers and variables, procedures and functions, manipulation of algebraic expressions, and handling the input and output. The last group, consisting of chapters 10, 11, and 14 to 17, presents the use of Maple to deal with more complicated problems: integration and summation (definite and indefinite), power series and limits, graphics, systems of algebraic equations, differential equations, and linear algebra. Finally, the exhaustive list of references will enable readers who are not familiar with computer algebra to find books or papers related to their field of interest. This book is good for people who want to know what computer algebra is and for those who want to use Maple as another tool provided by the advance of technology to deal with scientific or practical problems.