Open Source Linear Algebra Computational Software

This is a post for anyone who has done linear algebra and gets 2-3 pages into a question, and realizes they screwed up a step on page one.

It's happened too often to me to be funny anymore. half an hour wasted because that "-2v1_z" really should have been "2v2_z" and then everything would have come together properly.

If its happened to you before, or you want some software to check your work against. I suggest looking into this "Maxima" Project.

What it is, is very comparable to the symbolics library in matlab. However comes with a lot cheaper license (Free) and does the work in literally a 10th of the time. Its a considerably higher performance implementation to what Matlab currently implements.

Really, really crappy screen shot of Maxima.

I know that this totally sounds just like a plug for them. But compared to what I usually use I was impressed with the amount of features that a program like this has. Apparently it has plotting functions too (not nearly as powerful as Matlab in this respect).

One nice feature is the copy as image and copy as LaTeX functionality. Means you can use Maxima to render an equation quickly without the stupid PDF recompiling that LaTex does. Then Quickly and accurately get the right function into Latex without any of the usual hassles. (Particularly useful for equations that have many elements, sums or integrals in them).

If you're taking a Linear Algebra Course, and want to check your work with this. If you're like me and multiplying a bunch of symbolic rotation matrices together, or your in industry or as a hobbyist looking for a free solution to evaluate some problems. I'd strongly suggest this download as being a big step in the right direction if you don't want to shell out 150$ for a Matlab License.