Week 5: Symbolic Math
Official Topic
MATLAB symbolic math. Project 1 assigned.
Problem Focus
What changes when a computation is symbolic rather than numerical?
Students compare exact symbolic expressions with numerical approximations and learn when each representation is useful or misleading.
In Class
- Define symbolic variables.
- Differentiate, integrate, and solve symbolic expressions.
- Convert symbolic results to numerical values.
- Compare exact and approximate answers.
AI-Aware Task
Ask an LLM for a symbolic solution and a numerical solution to the same problem. Compare assumptions, domains, and whether the answer is usable for computation.