Maxima is a system for the manipulation of symbolic and numerical expressions, including differentiation, integration, Taylor series, Laplace transforms, ordinary differential equations, systems of linear equations, polynomials, and sets, lists, vectors, matrices, and tensors.
Maxima yields high precision numeric results by using exact fractions, arbitrary precision integers, and arbitrarily precision floating point numbers.
Maxima can plot functions and data in two and three dimensions. Octave package is able to perform matrix and vector mathematics, numerically solve differential equations, and plot data utilizing Gnuplot.
The software is derived from the Macsyma system, developed at MIT in the years 1968 through 1982 as part of Project MAC.& Macsyma was revolutionary in its day, and many later systems, such as Maple and Mathematica, were inspired by it.
Key Features
- Manipulation of symbolic and numerical expressions.
- Differentiation.
- Integration.
- Taylor series.
- Laplace transforms.
- Ordinary differential equations.
- Systems of linear equations.
- Polynomials.
- Sets, lists, vectors, matrices, and tensors.
- Complete programming language with ALGOL-like syntax.
- Lisp-like semantics, facilitating teaching programming and computer algebra.
- Uses gnuplot for drawing.
- Various graphical user interfaces (GUI) are available for Maxima: wxMaxima is a cross platform GUI based on wxWidgets, TeXmacs and SAGE can be used to provide an interactive GUI. Another alternative is Imaxima, and an Emacs interaction mode.
- Cross-platform support – runs under Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Website: maxima.sourceforge.io
Support: Documentation, Mailing Lists
Developer: Many
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
Maxima is written in Lisp. Learn Lisp with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Computer Algebra Systems | |
|---|---|
| Scilab | Numerical computational package |
| Maxima | System for the manipulation of symbolic and numerical expressions |
| Octave | Powerful programming language with built-in plotting and visualization tools |
| SageMath | Open source alternative to Magma, Maple, Mathematica and Matlab |
| SymPy | Python library for symbolic mathematics |
| SINGULAR | Computer Algebra System for polynomial computations |
| Macaulay2 | Software system for research in algebraic geometry |
| Cadabra | Symbolic computer algebra system for field theory problems |
| PARI/GP | Widely used algebra system designed for fast computations in number theory |
| GAP | System for computational discrete algebra |
| FriCAS | Fork of Axiom |
| CoCoA | System for doing computations in commutative algebra |
| Mathics | General-purpose CAS with Mathematica-compatible syntax and functions |
| FORM | Symbolic Manipulation System |
| Nelson | Numerical computational language |
| wxMaxima | GUI for the sublime Maxima CAS |
| Xcas | Cross-platform mathematical environment |
| REDUCE | General-purpose computer algebra system for symbolic computation |
| Axiom | General purpose Computer Algebra system |
| Symja | Computer algebra system and symbolic mathematics library |
| CGSuite | For research in combinatorial game theory |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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