A Dynamic Experience with Maple in Italy

Mathematics students at the University of Perugia, Italy, gain insight into Rational Mechanics, thanks to a new initiative that allows them to build dynamic simulations using Maple.

Physics students all over the world are linked through a universal rite of passage Ü they all must walk the gauntlet of Classical Mechanics. For students of Professor Maria Clara Nucci at the University of Perugia in Italy, however, Maple has made this walk more insightful (and probably less drudgerous). Dr. Nucci uses Maple during lectures to make dynamic systems come to life for students in her course on Rational Mechanics. To further engage the students with the material, Dr. Nucci also assigns Maple projects in the lab.

Last year, she decided to go a step further and integrate Maple into the final exam. "Our present university system is such that in order to pass an exam, a student has to take a written test first, and then pass an oral examination," said Nucci. "This time, I offered the students the choice of doing a project with Maple instead of taking the usual written exam. I gave each of them a problem from my old tests. Their assignment was to solve it by using Maple and animate the solution."

As the final exam, each student is given a particular second-order system (for example, masses attached to springs, dampers, chains, rollers, pendulums, or their combinations) to analyse in Maple. The task is to derive the systemÍs equations of motion within the Maple worksheet and analyse the dynamic response both graphically and analytically. Finally, the student must generate an animation of the systemÍs motion with MapleÍs graphical language.