Maple 9 Learning Guide - Maplesoft

2.2 Numerical Computations • 11Important: Whenever you enter a number in decimal form, Maple treatsit as a floating-point approximation. The presence of a decimal numberin an expression causes Maple to produce an approximate floating-pointresult, since it cannot produce an exact solution from approximate data.Use floating-point numbers when you want to restrict Maple to workingwith non-exact expressions.> 3/2*5;152> 1.5*5;7.5You can enter exact quantities by using symbolic representation,for example, π in contrast to 3.14. Maple interprets irrational numbersas exact quantities. Here is how you represent the square root of two inMaple.> sqrt(2);√2Here is another square root example.> sqrt(3)^2;3Maple recognizes the standard mathematical constants, such as πand the base of the natural logarithms, e. It works with them as exactquantities.> Pi;π> sin(Pi);0