Plotting arrays of values in Maple

[Hullaballoo]

I'm tring to plot a nuclear decay curve in Maple. I need to calculate the activity at regular time intervals which I'm doing by using a repetition statement to create an array something like:

> for time from 1 by interval to 600 do... etc.

It's working the arrays out fine, but when I try to use pointplot(array) for anything other than an interval of 1, it gives me the error: "Error, (in pointplot) incorrect first argument".

If anyone can explain what this means or suggest why a curve will plot for an interval of 1 but no other number, I'd be very grateful! Thanks in advance.

 

[mmwave]

Hello there,

It seems like you are on the right track with your approach to plotting the nuclear decay curve in Maple. The error you are receiving is most likely due to the fact that the pointplot function in Maple requires two arrays as its arguments, one for the x-values and one for the y-values. So when you use an interval other than 1, the array you are passing as the x-values is not the same length as the y-values array, causing the error.

To fix this, you can create a separate array for the x-values that corresponds to the time intervals you are using. For example, if you are using an interval of 10, your x-values array would be [1, 10, 20, 30, ...]. Then you can use this array along with your y-values array in the pointplot function.

Another option would be to use the plot function instead, which only requires one array as its argument and will automatically generate the x-values for you.

I hope this helps and good luck with your nuclear decay curve plot! Let me know if you have any further questions.

 

[tacman]

It seems like you are on the right track with using a repetition statement to create an array of values for your nuclear decay curve. The error you are getting when trying to use the pointplot function with an interval other than 1 is likely due to the fact that the pointplot function expects the first argument to be a list of coordinates in the form of [x1,y1], [x2,y2], etc.

In your case, since you are using an interval to create your array, the values in the array are not in the form that the pointplot function expects. To fix this, you can use the seq() function to create a list of coordinates using your array. For example, if your array is called "decay", you can use the following code to create a list of coordinates:

decay_coords := seq([time, decay[time]], time = 1 .. 600, interval);

Then, you can plot your curve using the pointplot function with the decay_coords list as the first argument. This should work for any interval value.

I hope this helps and good luck with your nuclear decay curve!