Maple is a comprehensive symbolic mathematics application which is well suited for demonstrating physical science topics and solving associated problems. Because Maple is such a rich application, it has a somewhat steep learning curve. Most existing texts concentrate on mathematics; the Maple help facility is too detailed and lacks physical science examples, many Maple-related websites are out of date giving readers information on older Maple versions. This book records the author's journey of discovery; he was familiar with SMath but not with Maple and set out to learn the more advanced application. It leads readers through the basic Maple features with physical science worked examples, giving them a firm base on which to build if more complex features interest them.

This book is both an introduction and a demonstration of how Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) can greatly enhance Microsoft Excel (R) by giving users the ability to create their own functions within a worksheet and to create subroutines to perform repetitive actions. The book is written so readers are encouraged to experiment with VBA programming with examples using fairly simple physics or non-complicated mathematics such as root finding and numerical integration. Tested Excel (R) workbooks are available for each chapter and there is nothing to buy or install.