Abstract:

Modern applied mathematics education should cover practical problems solving and preferably also the skills to use software to solve real world problems. There have been many rather high quality mathematical software tools available for a long time. The paper provides a short survey on open source mathematical software useful in teaching applied mathematics. Free open source software can by used by the students free of charge and moreover, the students may continue using the software they have become familiar with during their studies even after completing their studies, still free of charge, The open source software tools considered in this paper include R statistical software, python and go language. Statistical evaluation of a short sample survey on prior experience with particular mathematical software of the students entering a course in applied mathematics and data analysis is reported. The software discussed in the paper is briefly introduced and a small case study in linear algebra is shown. It is possible to use some of the tools very easily just with web browser when choosing to use the software online, which may be useful especially when switching to distance learning.

Keywords:

Mathematical software, python, go.