The Use of R Language in Mathematics Teaching and Computation

Abstract

Computer Algebra Systems (CAS's) like Maple are commonly used in mathematics teaching and computation. The strength of these CAS's lies in their symbolic functionality. However, these CAS's are not free and may not be cost-effective to implement. In this paper, we consider the potential of the R language as a "free" substitute for CAS when symbolic computation is not required. The R language is a powerful environment for data analysis and graphics within which many statistical techniques have been implemented. It is an official part of the Free Software Foundation's GNU Project. Being a statistical software, R is not capable of performing symbolic calculations. The strength of R derives from its powerful computing capability and flexible graphing facility. With its ease of adaptability according to user's need, R has the potential to be an effective teaching and computation tool. We explore the following capabilities of R in mathematics teaching and computation: (i) as a programming language; (ii) as a graphing tool; (iii) as a statistical software.