wxMaxima Cheat Sheet

● Maxima distinguishes lower and upper case. All built-in functions have names which are lowercase only (sin, cos,
save, load, etc). Built-in constants have lowercase names (%e, %pi, inf, etc). If you type SIN(x) or Sin(x), Maxima
assumes you mean something other than the built-in sin function. User-defined functions and variables can have
names which are lower or upper case or both. srt(XY), Srt(Xy), SRT(xy) are all different.

● To abort a computation without leaving Maxima, type ^C. (Here ^ stands for the control key,so that ^C means first
press the key marked control and hold it down while pressing the C key.)

● The standard quantities e (natural log base), i (square root of −1) and π (3.14159 . . .) are respectively referred to as
%e, %i, and %pi. Note that the use of % here as a prefix is completely unrelated to the use of % to refer to the
preceding result computed.

● In order to assign a value to a variable, Maxima uses the colon (:), not the equal sign. The equal sign is used for
representing equations.

● To enter x 22x1 I am finding it necessary to type the following: x^2 + 2*x + 1

BASIC OPERATORS

+ addition
- subtraction
* scalar multiplication
/ division
^ or ** exponentiation
. matrix multiplication
sqrt(x) square root of x.

BASIC OPERATIONS

expand ( ) try expand ((x+5)^7)

factor ( )try factor (%). This is assuming that you just entered the above operation.

solve (equation, variable) Try these two examples:

solve (x+5, x) solve (x+5=-6,x)

ratsimp finds a common denominator across an equation.

w:variable ie w:32 will make w = 32, w:5/z will replace w with 5/z

trigexpand ( ) expands trig equations (using sum of angles to simplify)

trigreduce ( ) converts a trig equation to only sin or cos

partfrac ( ) returns a fraction broken down into its partial fraction components

To plot, enter your equation, and click the 2d- or 3d-plot buttons and enter your upper and lower bounds.
MATRIX OPERATIONS

To enter a matrix: m: entermatrix (3, 3);

Is the matrix 1. Diagonal 2. Symmetric 3. Antisymmetric 4. General

Answer 1, 2, 3 or 4 :
4;
Row 1 Column 1:
0;
Row 1 Column 2:
1;
Row 1 Column 3:
a;
Row 2 Column 1:
1;
Row 2 Column 2:
0;
Row 2 Column 3:
1;
Row 3 Column 1:
1;
Row 3 Column 2:
1;
Row 3 Column 3:
0;
Matrix entered.

Useful Operations

invert (variable) inverts the matrix

m.n multiplies matrix m times matrix n