ABSTRACT
Numerical computation involves explicit representations of real numbers as used by modern electronic calculators (e.g., 1.4142, 3.1416). Semi-numerical computation involves numbers that are represented in some other way, often symbolically rather than explicitly (e.g.,
√ 2, π). These two categories cover
computation with integer, rational, real and complex numbers, and finite fields. Most conventional scientific computation is explicitly numerical, so that is what I will focus on in this chapter, but I will also touch briefly on some aspects of semi-numerical computation, for which Maple is a particularly powerful tool. The next chapter is devoted to linear algebra in general and numerical linear algebra in particular.
