Simulations of one-dimensional heat conduction with Maxima software

Abstract

Maxima software is a freely distributed computer algebra system. It is, therefore, a free alternative to systems applied to Physics research as well as to the development of digital resource for Physics teaching. In this work, one of the manners of applying Maxima to Physics teaching is presented by solving numerically the one-dimensional heat equation. With help of a tool named Draw, which allows to create GIFs directly from Maxima input, simulations of the thermic variation in a thermic conducting isolated bar which extremities are subjected to fixed arbitrary temperatures are generated. The presented examples can be used to facilitate the understanding of dynamic situations arising from the heat equation as well as the numerical method of finite differences applied to solve partial differential equations.

Keywords:
Maxima Software; heat conduction; Computational Physics