Daljit Dhadwal

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A computer algebra system (CAS) is software that can perform symbolic mathematics. There are two main types of math software: programs designed to do numerical calculations and programs that can manipulate symbols. The first group includes programs like MATLAB, GAUSS, GNU Octave, and Stata. The second group includes programs like Mathematica, Maple, and Maxima.

A CAS will let you solve the following type of problem:

The CAS will tell you that the above is equal to:

There are many CASes out there; two very user friendly ones are Wolfram Alpha and Microsoft Mathematics. Both are free. Wolfram Alpha is web based and it’s made by Wolfram, the same company that makes Mathematica. Here’s how the above example would look like in Wolfram Alpha. Microsoft Mathematics is from Microsoft and it’s designed for students. One great feature of the program is that it can often show all of the steps needed to get to the final answer instead of just showing the final answer.

You can download Microsoft Mathematics here.