Algebrator 4.0

San Antonio, Texas based Softmath today announced availability of the latest version of its Algebrator™ software. Algebrator 4.0 is a tutoring software program which solves a wide range of algebraic problems entered by users of the program, and includes interactive explanations to enrich students' learning of Algebra. The package is designed for math students from pre-algebra through college-level algebra. Algebra teachers at many levels also utilize Algebrator as a supplemental teaching tool in classrooms.

Algebrator 4.0 adds a number of important features to the already impressive Algebrator software legacy. New features and benefits provided by Algebrator 4.0 include the following:

Linear Algebra Support: Add or Subtract Matrices; Multiply matrices, including scalars; Find inverse of a matrix; Calculate the determinant of a matrix.
New Parabola Wizards: Find the equation of a parabola using its vertex and a point on
the parabola; Find the equation of the vertical/horizontal parabola passing through three points; Find the focus of a parabola; Analytically determine the direction in which a parabola opens; Find the axis of symmetry of a parabola; Find the equation of the directrix of a parabola.
Additional Graphics support, including improvements to shading of Graphs and the Graphing of Inequalities.

For more information on Algebrator 4.0 visit http://www.softmath.com/.

Numerical Mathematics Consortium Updates Open Standard

The Numerical Mathematics Consortium is a nonprofit organization comprising vendors and individuals in industry and academia committed to establishing an open mathematical semantics standard for numerical algorithm development and reuse. Established in 2005 by founding members that include INRIA (Scilab Developer), Maplesoft (Maple developer), National Instruments (LabVIEW developer) and PTC (MathCAD developer). The consortium is focused on reducing the overall cost of numerical algorithm development and increasing reuse in both industry and academia for application areas such as embedded design, industrial control and scientific research.

The Numerical Mathematics Consortium today announced the latest update of its technical specification that defines an open mathematics semantics standard for development of numerical algorithms. The revision features newly ratified functions from classes that include discrete transforms, special functions, Boolean operations, comparison operations and trigonometry.

In addition, the consortium released new technical documents and a revised function list to clarify how to specify and document function definitions. The newly resolved technical issues address practical topics related to algorithm design and compliance with the standard. For instance, the draft standard defines a consistent set of data types that lay out a uniform meaning for the input and output parameters of the defined functions. Defining these data types ensures consistent implementation and establishes guidelines that will improve the rate of progress for the definition of new functions.

The third draft revision is available for public review on the Numerical Mathematics Consortium Web site, http://www.nmconsortium.org/.

JMP 7

JMP7 from the SAS institute is statistical discovery software that is capable of processing up to 2 billion variables and an unlimited number of records to handle real world problems.

JMP runs on Windows (including Vista), Macintosh and Linux. Its immediacy and responsiveness come from the fact that it holds all data in memory rather than having to wait while data is moved from and to disk. With the May 2007 release of JMP version 7, all limitations on table sizes have been removed, so that users are now only limited by their operating system and computer’s RAM. JMP 7 also takes advantage of multithreading, so that it works faster on multiprocessor machines. Now tens of millions of rows can be analyzed routinely.

Traditionally used by scientists and engineers, JMP7 has also gained popularity among business users, who can replace static charts with motion-enabled, interactive plots that uncover hidden trends and predict the future. Graphical querying, an enhanced script editor, and project collaboration tools make data discovery more accessible throughout the business organization.

Bubble plots, 3D scatter plots, and other features let both novice and experienced JMP users explore data and animate up to seven variables. JMP 7 automatically and immediately updates graphs and reports to display query results. An easy-to-use new project feature lets users drag data tables, journals, scripts, files and even e-mails into the project to facilitate collaboration. When a colleague opens the project, JMP restores the entire desktop so discovery can be picked up where it was left off.

SAS expects to release versions for 64-bit Windows and Linux later this year. For more details on JMP7, visit http://www.jmp.com/.

DynaFlexPro 3.0

Maplesoft recently announced the release of DynaFlexPro 3.0, a Maple package used to model and simulate the kinematics and dynamics of mechanical multibody systems. Significantly enhanced usability features make this release relevant to a wider range of engineers.

DynaFlexPro was designed to overcome issues with cumbersome, slow, and error-prone numeric-based mechanical analysis tools. DynaFlexPro allows engineering product developers to optimize, simulate, and control their designs to reduce prototyping time and bring their products to the market faster.

Designed by MotionPro Inc. (co-founded by Dr. John McPhee, P.Eng., and Patricia Shaw, P.Eng.), and launched under the MapleConnect Premier program, DynaFlexPro uses Maple to symbolically generate the equations of motion for the mechanism. The robust computer algebra technologies inside Maple create efficient sets of system equations in a symbolic form, which facilitates viewing, having a good physical insight, and sharing. This symbolic approach not only assists in the design, optimization, simulation, and control of complex engineering systems, it is also suitable for teaching mechanical system design.

Its new features include:
-- A new Project Manager user interface that guides users through the model development process with step-by-step instructions, buttons, and dialog boxes.
-- A Model Development Guide, which is a step-by-step guide to creating new models and generating the model equations.
-- An Equation Builder Assistant that walks users through the process of converting the model description to kinematic and dynamic equations that describe the motion of the system.
-- The ability to select the base coordinate system to which the other system reference frames are mapped, even if users are not familiar with graph theory.

The package comes with DynaFlexPro ModelBuilder co-founded by Dr. John McPhee, P.Eng., and Patricia Shaw, P.Eng.), a graphical model development interface, facilitates the rapid creation of system models using blocks, lines, and drop-down menus. DynaFlexPro combines graph theory with engineering mechanics in algorithms that automatically generate the system equations from a system model, and highly-optimized simulation code for real-time and hardware-in-loop applications.

For more details, visit DynaFlexPro Homepage.

Ramanujan Inspires More Movies, Books & Plays

A scene from the play 'A Disappearing Number' [photo credit: Robbie Jack. Courtesy: 'Complicite']

In 1913, a 25-year-old mathematician from Tamil Nadu, a southern state in India, sailed to England and the rest was a part of the history that needs no introduction for anyone who loves mathematics. Nearly a century on, the story of the collaboration between Srinivasa Ramanujan and GH Hardy is suddenly exciting the interest of storytellers.

Last autumn, a play by David Freeman called 'A First Class Man' premiered off Broadway. There are two films in development: one based on Robert Kanigel’s 1991 biography, 'The Man Who Knew Infinity'; the second an Anglo-Indian venture, to be co-directed by Dev Benegal and Stephen Fry.

Coming soon, also from America, is 'The Indian Clerk', a hefty novel by David Leavitt [Publisher: Bloomsbury, 496 pp., $24.95].

The odyssey of Ramanujan is also the theme of a new drama from 'Complicite', the inventive theatre company from London, which is renowned for sourcing drama in the unlikeliest places. The play named 'A Disappearing Number' takes as its starting point this story of the most mysterious and romantic mathematical collaborations of all time. The play has received rave reviews in English Press.